This paper describes the haptic rendering of a virtual environment by drawing upon concepts developed in the area of teleoperation. A four-channel teleoperation architecure is shown to be an effective means of coordinating the control of a new 3-DOF haptic interface with the simulation of a virtual dynamic environment.

Haptic virtual texture can enhance people's experience in interacting with virtual objects by providing surface information. We present a study to analyze how people distinguish between 2D and 3D square-wave gratings using a point-source haptic interface. Our analyses were based on objective vibration and force measurements and psychophysical experiments with human subjects. The results indicat...

Force-feedback mechanisms have been designed to simplify and enhance the human-vehicle interface. The increase in secondary controls within vehicle cockpits has created a desire for a simpler, more efficient humanvehicle interface. By consolidating various controls into a single, haptic feedback control device, information can be transmitted to the operator, without requiring the driver’s visua...

In this paper we present an innovative haptic device that combines the electro-tactile stimulation with the force and visual feedbacks in order to improve the perception of a virtual world. We discuss the sensation evoked in a user by the haptic, force, and the visual interface as provided by this device, implemented as a special glove, equipped with sensors and actuators connected to a PC. The...

The performance levels of human subjects in size identification and discrimination experiments in both real and virtual environments are presented. The virtual environments are displayed with a three degree-of-freedom haptic interface, developed at Vanderbilt University. Results indicate that performance of the size identification and discrimination tasks in the virtual environment is comparabl...

Force-feedback mechanisms have been designed to simplify and enhance the humanvehicle interface. The increase in secondary controls within vehicle cockpits has created a desire for a simpler, more efficient human-vehicle interface. By consolidating various controls into a single, haptic feedback control device, information can be transmitted to the operator, without requiring the driver’s visua...

The use of haptic interfaces in surgery could provide the surgeon useful sensing information about the patient tissues. Our goal in this work, is to use the haptic interface to obtain some sample points on the surface of an object or organ tissue in medical applications. This elasticity information feeds an artificial neural network. The output of the neural network is an approximation of the c...

This paper presents a two-part study of the effects of maximum endpoint force and system bandwidth on haptic perception. First, size identification experiments were performed to determine the effects of system quality, in terms of these two system parameters, on the ability of a human to identify square cross-section ridges by size in a simulated environment. Then, discrimination experiments we...

This work describes early research activity on a haptic mouse interface. This project aims to join tactile and kinesthetic feedbacks in order to improve the accessibility of the PC to visually impaired persons. In this phase a planar haptic interface has been developed. It is based on two linear motors, which allows a simple mechanical structure, with high stiffness and without backlash. The sy...

In this article, we present an approach that uses both two force sensitive handles (FSH) and a flexible capacitive touch sensor (FCTS) to drive a haptic-based immersive system. The immersive system has been developed as part of a multimodal interface for product design. The haptic interface consists of a strip that can be used by product designers to evaluate the quality of a 3D virtual shape b...