Immersive VR for natural interaction with a haptic interface for Shape Rendering

This paper presents an immersive virtual reality system that includes a natural interaction approach based on free hand gestures that is used to drive a Desktop Haptic Strip for Shape Rendering (DHSSR). The DHSSR is a mechatronic display of virtual curves intersecting 3D virtual objects, and aims at allowing designers to evaluate the quality of shapes during the conceptual design phase of new products. The DHSSR consists of a 6DOF servo-actuated developable metallic strip, which reproduces cross-sectional curves of 3D virtual objects. Virtual curves can be interactively generated on the 3D surface of the virtual object, and coherently the DHSSR haptic interface renders them. An intuitive and natural modality for interacting with the 3D virtual objects and 3D curves is offered to users, who are mainly industrial designers. This consists of an immersive virtual reality system for the visualization of the 3D virtual models and a hand gestural interaction approach used by the user for handling the models. The system has been implemented by using low cost and open technologies, and combines a software engine for interactive 3D content generation (Unity 3D), the Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display for 3D stereo visualization, a motion capture sensor (LeapMotion) for tracking the user's hands, and the Arduino Leonardo board for controlling the components. Results reported in the paper are positive for what concerns the quality of the rendering of the surface, and of the interaction modality proposed.