DEVELOPMENT OF A NETWORKED HAPTIC ENVIRONMENT IN VR TO FACILITATE COLLABORATIVE DESIGN USING VOXMAP POINTSHELL (VPS) SOFTWARE

摘要

A networked virtual environment is a hardware and software system where people who are geographically dispersed over the world can interact with each other by sharing space, presence, and time. The goal of the work presented here is to develop methods to facilitate the use of force feedback, or haptic, devices within a networked virtual environment. Our research aims at investigating and constructing a networked haptic environment (NHE) over a non-dedicated channel for multiple users. The NHE consists of a local network between each haptic device and each virtual environment, as well as a global network linking all of the virtual environments. Position synchronization throughout the global network is accomplished using "Released-but-not-released" method (RNR) which allows computers with different performance capabilities to participate in the network without users experiencing inaccurate object motions. The networked virtual assembly application has been demonstrated using several haptic devices and several virtual environments, without a limitation on number of users or complexity of input models. Performance measures are examined and future work is outlined.