10-06-2017, 06:59 AM
the potential of haptics technologies
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Human Haptics
Human haptics refers to the study of
human sensing and manipulation
through tactile and kinesthetic sensations.
When a user touches an object,
interaction forces are imposed on the
skin. The associated sensory system
conveys this information to the brain and thus leads to perception.
As a response, the brain issues motor commands to
activate the muscles that results in a hand or arm movement.
Human haptics focuses mainly on studying this human sensorimotor
loop and all aspects related to the human perception
of the sense of touch.
Computer Haptics
Computer haptics is an emerging area of research that is
concerned with developing algorithms and software to generate
and render the touch of virtual environments and
objects, just as computer graphics deal with generating and
rendering visual images. Computer haptics has two main
components, haptic rendering and visual rendering, that
communicate the virtual environment s graphics, sound, and
force responses to the human user. Haptic rendering is considered
the core of any haptic-based application it manages
algorithms to detect and report when and where the geometry
contact has occurred (collision detection) and computes
the correct interaction force between a haptic device and its
virtual environment (collision response).
Multimedia Haptics
Multimedia and information technology are reaching limits
in terms of what can be done in multimedia applications with
only sight and sound. The next critical step in development
in multimedia systems is to bring the sense of touch into
applications. We define multimedia haptics as the acquisition
of spatial, temporal, and physical knowledge of the environment
through the human touch sensory system and the integration/coordination
of this knowledge with other sensory displays (such as
audio, video, and text) in a multimedia system. Therefore, multimedia
haptics, which we also refer to as a haptic audio visual
environment (HAVE), involves integrating and coordinating
the presentation of haptic interface data, and other types of
media, in the multimedia application to utilize gesture recognition,
tactile sensing, and force feedback.
Haptic Rendering
Since the term haptic rendering has been widely used in literature
and with slightly different meanings, we explicitly
define it as the following:
Haptic rendering refers to the group of algorithms and techniques
that are used to compute and generate forces and torques in
response to interactions between the haptic interface avatar inside
the virtual environment and the virtual objects populating the
environment.
This definition has many implications:
First, the avatar is a virtual representation of the haptic
interface whose position is controlled by the operator.
C-HAVE Applications
Haptic research and development has focused on designing
and evaluating several prototypes of different characteristics
and capabilities for the use in virtual environments. Recently,
some of these prototypes have become commercially available
to the market. Applications of this technology have been
spreading rapidly from devices applied to graphical user
interfaces, games, multimedia publishing, scientific discovery
and visualization, arts and creation, editing sound and
images, the vehicle industry, engineering, manufacturing,
telerobotics, teleoperations, education and training, the military
domain, as well as medical simulation and rehabilitation.