Tilte: "INTERACTION IN MULTISENSORY HAPTIC SYSTEMS: COLLISION RESPONSE AND USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS"
Author: JOSUNE HERNANTES APEZETXEA
Date: 2008-12-15
Director: Dr. Diego Borro Yágüez
Abstract:
Virtual Reality applications are becoming very frequent in areas such as industry or medicine since they can be used as advanced working or learning tools. There is a need to enhance the realism of these systems which motivates to add the sense of touch increasing significantly the accuracy and efficiency to perform tasks in addition to the immersion of users is this type of environments.
Haptic devices allow users to interact with virtual objects through the sense of touch receiving force feedback as a response to collisions with the environment. However, haptic technology is still recent and as a result it is difficult to get a stable and realistic response in complex environments.
This thesis investigates and provides solutions in two haptic key areas: the calculation of contact forces and torques as a result of user actions in virtual environments and multisensory perception.
Real-time collision detection and response is a complicated and essential task for the effectiveness of these systems. This work develops a haptic rendering method able to compute an improved and stable haptic response even in complex situations such as disassembly operations in aeronautic environments.
Furthermore, it analyses the effectiveness of combining different sensory modalities available on the system to improve the overall perception of the system as well as user immersion.
