Mechatronics Technology in Mobile Devices

Recently, haptics research has grown into an interdisciplinary field, covering perception, psychophysics, virtual reality, mechanism design, and control. Haptics research is considered to have originated from teleoperator systems. In these initial explorations, increasing the transparency level of the mechanical master/slave manipulator system was the main issue. As computer graphics technology has emerged to realize a wide range of virtual reality applications, the development of control technologies and haptic master device designs have adapted to focus mainly on interaction with virtual environments. Numerous breakthroughs in visual, sound, and haptic modeling technologies enable the real-time display of contact with virtual objects, including capabilities such as shape deformation and reactive force. There have been attempts to model and display the fine details of touched surfaces to enhance virtual presence. Research in neuroscience and psychophysics has led to discoveries in the human perceptual processes underlying haptic sensations. Drawing on this understanding, researchers have begun to examine efficient methods of building tactile display units that are capable of rendering feelings of roughness, softness, and temperature.