VEserver: a manager for input and haptic multi-sensorial devices

The majority of current feedback within virtual environments (VE) are visual and auditory. However, to interact correctly with virtual objects, we must use haptic feedbacks. These devices require a lot of CPU power while they commonly process on operating systems (OS) other than those running on the powerful graphic calculators. Thus, it is necessary for VE applications to have a distributed architecture over a network which allows the cooperation of several computers with different OS. A fundamental part of this architecture is the VEserver, an event server to manage VE devices. Its structure allows the connection of devices like trackers, data gloves, voice or gesture recognition systems as well as input/output haptic devices.