A Novel Approach for Pseudo-haptic Textures Based on Curvature Information

Pseudo-haptic textures allow to optically-induce relief in textures without a haptic device by adjusting the speed of the mouse pointer according to the depth information encoded in the texture. In this work, we present a novel approach for using curvature information instead of relying on depth information. The curvature of the texture is encoded in a normal map which allows the computation of the curvature and local changes of orientation, according to the mouse position and direction. A user evaluation was conducted to compare the optically-induced haptic feedback of the curvature-based approach versus the original depth-based approach based on depth maps. Results showed that users, in addition to being able to efficiently recognize simulated bumps and holes with the curvature-based approach, were also able to discriminate shapes with lower frequency and amplitude.