Depth Discrimination with 2d Haptics During Static Viewing of 3d Angiograms

We describe a force feedback scheme that is able to provide for haptic depth perception for use during the static 2d viewing of 3d angiograms. The scheme returns 2d horizontal forces that bear some analogy with forces that would be needed to glide a virtual proxy on the vessel centerlines. The display system was evaluated by asking subjects to determine the relative depth of randomly selected points on vessel segments. The results indicate that subjects were able to discriminate the relative depth in an average time of 12 seconds and with an accuracy of 95%.