A New Approach for Canceling Turning Motion in the Locomotion Interface, ATLAS

Fig.1 Locomotion Interface ATLAS Fig. 2 Imaging Robot AIR Fig. 3 Length of the step in the lateral direction of normal walking on a flat floor. Introduction We are concerned with communication media, especially media for daily communication. Let’s consider the case when people want to chat. For example, when we travel alone in a foreign country or when we see an impressive painting alone, we may want to enjoy the feeling with our family. We have introduced “Tel-E-Merge” as new communication system for “I wish you were here” [1]. We coined the term Tel-E-Merge to have a double meaning, Tele-Merge and Tel-Emerge, which will make it possible to merge a remotely located person, the tele-visitor, into a tele-inviter’s space through VR systems. In this research, I intend to shape Tel-E-Merge into a media that allows conversation between remotely separated persons while they walk. It consists of the locomotion interface ATLAS (ATR Locomotion Interface for Active Self Motion, Fig. 1) [2] and the mobile TV-phone robot AIR (ATR Imaging Robot, Fig. 2). We employ a treadmill and turntable approach to allow ATLAS to cancel walking motion in any direction. The visual sensor on ATLAS estimates the user’s walking speed and turning motion from the feet motion, and controls the belt speed and posture of the treadmill to keep the walker on the belt. AIR is a radio controlled wheeled robot with a TV phone. The result of the walking motion detection system in ATLAS is transmitted to AIR in a remote real space, and AIR is driven accordingly. Simultaneously, the TV phone system on AIR feeds back the visual and audio information of the remote space. Therefore, the users can get the feeling of actual walking together in the remote large space. In later sections, we present the details of the locomotion interface ATLAS, especially how ATLAS is able to cancel turning motions.