Force/Tactile Feedback System for Virtual Reality Environments

摘要

TOPIT- Touch Objects Positioned In Time, is a vitural reality system that allowsa user, wearing a head mounted display (HMD) to actuate control knobs or dials on a cockpit instrument panel appearing in user's HMD. The actual knobs, dials, and control are delivered to the user by an x-y-z robot. The instrument panel can be reconfigured entirely in software. A tracker and data glove continually provide the position of user's hand and finger to a computer, and the computer commands the servomechanism system to place the correct type of control in the correct position to be actuated. The servo system has a 'touch panel' that contains examples of a dozen or so different types of controls, such as toggle switches, knobs, and push buttons, that are used repeatedly to represent any number of instrument panel controls. One key aspect of the system is building a servo system that moves fast enough to put the knobs, dials, and control in place at the time when the user reaches for it. Another key aspect is achieving precise low-latency tracking of both user's head and user's hand.