Displaying variable stiffness by passive nonlinear spring using visuo-haptic interaction

摘要

This paper proposes an immersive visuo-haptic display system composed of an easy-to-carry and light-weight passive haptic device and an HMD. We employ visuo-haptic interaction to control a wide range of perceived stiffness without using mechanical actuators that would inevitably make the device bulky and power-consuming. Via an HMD a user sees his or her own rendered hand with its finger flexion that is appropriately modified in relation to presented virtual stiffness. We experimentally verified that the proposed system could display both a pinchable elastic ball and a rigid undeformable one.