The compliance of a material can be conveyed through mechanical interactions in a virtual environment and perceived through both visual and haptic cues. We investigated this basic aspect of perception. In two experiments, subjects performed compliance discriminations, and the mean perceptual estimate (PSE) and the perceptual standard deviation (proportional to JND) were derived from psychophysical functions. Experiment 1 supported a model in which each modality acted independently to produce a compliance estimate, and the two estimates were then integrated to produce an overall value. Experiment 2 tested three mathematical models of the integration process. The data ruled out exclusive reliance on the more reliable modality and stochastic selection of one modality. Instead, the results supported an integration process that constitutes a weighted summation of two random variables, which are defined by the single modality estimates. The model subsumes optimal fusion but provided valid predictions also if the weights were not optimal. Weights were optimal (i.e., minimized variance) when vision and haptic inputs were congruent, but not when they were incongruent.
Abstract-This paper presents a new library called MHaptic for bimanual haptic interaction within generic virtual environments. It has been specifically designed to work with a Haptic Workstation TM . MHaptic provides tools for accelerated development of virtual environment applications with haptic feedback like device calibration, user comfort improvements and access to low level parameters. Due to its integration with the Ageia PhysX library, it facilitates the dynamic animation of virtual objects. A realistic hand model based on mass-spring systems allows natural and intuitive manipulation. MHaptic is complemented by an authoring tool that associates information required for haptic feedback to existing virtual environments. The combination of the library and the authoring tool creates a framework for easy development of complex VR haptic applications.
Telepresence systems are often deployed in scenarios where communication bandwidth is limited. Consequently, data exchanged between operator and teleoperator has to be reduced. In case of haptic telepresence, data reduction has an influence on the stability of the overall system. This paper provides a step towards a systematic framework for communication data bandwidth reduction in haptic telepresence systems discussing stability for a class of lossy data reduction (LDR) algorithms. Simulation and experimental results validate the efficacy.
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