How to Go Beyond the Frontiers of Haptic Interaction? (original) (raw)

A comparison of three techniques to interact in large virtual environments using haptic devices with limited workspace

Advances in Computer …, 2006

This paper describes an experiment that was conducted to evaluate three interaction techniques aiming at interacting with large virtual environments using haptic devices with limited workspace: the Scaling technique, the Clutching technique, and the Bubble technique. Participants were asked to paint a virtual model as fast and as precisely as possible inside a CAVE, using a "desktop" haptic device. The results showed that the Bubble technique enabled both the quickest and the most precise paintings. It was also the most appreciated technique.

Expanding Haptic Workspace for Coupled-Object Manipulation

2011

Haptic force-feedback offers a valuable cue in exploration and manipulation of virtual environments. However, grounding of many commercial kinesthetic haptic devices limits the workspace accessible using a purely position-control scheme. The bubble technique has been recently presented as a method for expanding the user's haptic workspace. The bubble technique is a hybrid position-rate control system in which a volume, or "bubble," is defined entirely within the physical workspace of the haptic device. When the device's end effector is within this bubble, interaction is through position control. When exiting this volume, an elastic restoring force is rendered, and a rate is applied that moves the virtual accessible workspace. Existing work on the bubble technique focuses on point-based touching tasks. When the bubble technique is applied to simulations where the user is grasping virtual objects with part-part collision detection, unforeseen interaction problems surface. This paper discusses three details of the user experience of coupled-object manipulation with the bubble technique. A few preliminary methods of addressing these interaction challenges are introduced.

Haptic and Visual Feedback for Manipulation Aid in a Virtual Environment

Dynamic Systems and Control

This paper proposes a new method of object manipulation in a Virtual Environment that uses a visual and haptic feedback based manipulation aid. If the displayed position of the object is constrained on a face of another object in the virtual environment, a user can place the virtual object at a precise position as easily as in a real environment. The visual feedback based manipulation aid constrains the motion of the virtual object as if it were moved in a real environment. Furthermore, in simultaneous correspondence with the visual constraints, the haptic feedback based manipulation aid constrains the motion of the user’s hand in the real environment. The proposed method introduces a magnetic metaphor: the user has the sensation of manipulating a virtual object on a rigid surface without using a large and powerful robot arm and the time consuming simulation of detailed physical phenomena. The properties of this manipulation aid based on two kinds of feedback are discussed. Experime...

Haptic interaction in virtual environments

Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems. Innovative Robotics for Real-World Applications. IROS '97

We present a haptic rendering framework that allows the tactile display of complex virtual environments. This framework allows surface constraints, surface shading, friction, texture and other effects to be modeled solely by updating the position of a representative object, the "virtual proxy." This abstraction reduces the task of the haptic servo control loop to the minimization of the error between user's position and that of the proxy. This framework has been implemented in a system that is able to haptically render virtual environments of a complexity that is near and often in excess of the capabilities of current interactive graphic systems.

Haptic hybrid rotations: Overcoming hardware angular limitations of force-feedback devices

Virtual Reality …, 2006

This paper describes a new interaction technique called haptic hybrid rotations to overcome the physical angular limitations of force-feedback devices when manipulating virtual objects. This technique is based on a hybrid control of the object manipulated with the device. When approaching the angular mechanical stops of the device, the control mode switches from angular position-control to rate-control. The forcefeedback of the device is used to simulate the use of an elastic device in the rate-control mode.

Haptic interaction with virtual mechanical systems

Abstract1 -In this paper some possible solutions for interaction with virtual mechanical systems are presented. For the purpose of manipulating and interaction with mechanical systems in a realistic manner various haptic devices can be used. To assess the added value of the interaction the authors conducted a series of experiments involving multimodal interaction. Three possible cases and applications are presented: (i) when the user is interacting with a completely virtual mechanical system -for this a desktop virtual reality system was used including a PHANToM® haptic device , (ii) when the user is manipulating one element of the mechanical system in a CAVE-like visualization system using the stringbased SPIDAR haptic device, and (iii) when the user is interacting with one part of a mechanism (the mechanical system being composed by one or more real and virtual elements and joints -using augmented reality techniques and see-through featured head mounted display): a crank linked to a torque controlled electrical motor. The research showed the difficulties when trying to interact with a virtual mechanism using haptic feedback.

Leveraging Passive Haptic Feedback in Virtual Environments with the Elastic-Arm Approach

Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 2016

Haptic feedback is known to improve 3D interaction in virtual environments but current haptic interfaces remain complex and tailored to desktop interaction. In this paper, we describe an alternative approach called “Elastic-Arm” for incorporating haptic feedback in immersive virtual environments in a simple and cost-effective way. The Elastic-Arm is based on a body-mounted elastic armature that links the user's hand to the body and generates a progressive egocentric force when extending the arm. A variety of designs can be proposed with multiple links attached to various locations on the body in order to simulate different haptic properties and sensations such as different levels of stiffness, weight lifting, and bimanual interaction. Our passive haptic approach can be combined with various 3D interaction techniques and we illustrate the possibilities offered by the Elastic-Arm through several use cases based on well-known techniques such as the Bubble technique, redirected touc...

Exploiting Proprioception to Improve Haptic Interaction in a Virtual Environment

Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 2006

3D environments are designed to be intuitive and easy to use. However, when defining interaction in 3D virtual environments, suitable paradigms for accessing objects and user interface elements are often difficult to determine. Several solutions currently exist, all with their strengths and weaknesses, but due to the complexity of the human senses and technical and financial restrictions, none of them is ideal. In this paper, we describe a first step in our research investigating how 3D interaction can be improved by introducing a technique that uses proprioception together with realistic force feedback in order to more easily access objects and widgets in 3D space. In a user experiment, we also validate our newly proposed solution, and compare it to our earlier work.

A Large Workspace Haptic Device for Human-Scale Virtual Environments

The paper aims to present a new human-scale haptic device for virtual environment named Scaleable-SPIDAR (Space Interface Device for Artificial Reality), which can provides different aspects of force feedback sensations, associated mainly with weight, contact and inertia, to both hands within a cave-like space. Tensioned string techniques are used to generate such haptic sensations, while keeping the space transparent and unbulky. The device is scaleable so as to enclose different cave-like working space. Scaleable-SPIDAR is coupled with a large screen where a computer generated virtual world is displayed. The used approach is shown to be simple, safe and sufficiently accurate for human-scale virtual environment. Keywords Human-Scale, Virtual Environment, Force Feedback. 1.

“Can I Touch This?”: Survey of Virtual Reality Interactions via Haptic Solutions

2021

Haptic feedback has become crucial to enhance the user experiences in Virtual Reality (VR). This justifies the sudden burst of novel haptic solutions proposed these past years in the HCI community. This article is a survey of Virtual Reality interactions, relying on haptic devices. We propose two dimensions to describe and compare the current haptic solutions: their degree of physicality, as well as their degree of actuation. We depict a compromise between the user and the designer, highlighting how the range of required or proposed stimulation in VR is opposed to the haptic interfaces flexibility and their deployment in real-life use-cases. This paper (1) outlines the variety of haptic solutions and provides a novel perspective for analysing their associated interactions, (2) highlights the limits of the current evaluation criteria regarding these interactions, and finally (3) reflects the interaction, operation and conception potentials of "encountered-type of haptic devices". CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; Haptic devices; Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms.