Handheld haptic interface with visual display for touching remote objects

This paper describes development of a haptic interface to provide haptic and visual sensation of remote real objects, which are placed at various distances from a user. The system consists of a laser range finder, a 1 degree-of-freedom haptic apparatus, a see-through visual display and a micro-computer. The haptic apparatus can generate a reaction force based on a distance between the interface and a target object that is measured by the laser range finder. The end-effector of the haptic apparatus is a dial, which can be rotated infinitely so that a virtual stick can extend/contract by rotating the dial. When the virtual stick hits to a remote object, the user can feel a reaction force through the dial. The user can feel the shape of a remote object by tracing the object with the interface. Through some experiments, the effectiveness of this system was confirmed.