Physicians develop great skill in palpating problems below the surface of the body, becoming able to detect things that untrained persons would not.

Examples include pulses, abdominal distension, cardiac thrills, fremitus, and various hernias, joint dislocations, bone fractures, and tumors, among others.

Reflective markers are part of the scientific protocol and allow further quantified motion analysis for joint disorders follow-up.

This method combined with quantified manual palpation allows subject-specific visualization of joint behavior during particular motion tasks (e.g., walking, stair climbing, etc.).

Combining data from both manual and virtual palpation protocols allows achieving supplementary analysis: registration protocols aiming at building reference frames for motion representation according reproducible clinical conventions; to modelize joint kinematics accurately during musculoskeletal analysis; to align precisely orthopedic tools according to the individual anatomy of a patient; or to wrap and to scale surface textures to motion data when creating animation characters.

Use of standardized definitions for the above activities allows better result comparison and exchange;[3] this is a key element for patient follow-up or the elaboration of quality clinical and research databases.

Such definitions also allow acceptable repeat ability by individuals with different backgrounds (physiotherapists, medical doctors, nurses, engineers, etc.).

Tactile imaging closely mimics manual palpation, since the probe of the device with a pressure sensor array mounted on its face acts similar to human fingers during clinical examination, slightly deforming soft tissue by the probe and detecting resulting changes in the pressure pattern.