2006 IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and their Applications (HAVE 2006)

Computer haptics refers to the discipline concerned with generating and rendering haptic stimuli to the human user. The last decade has witnessed a rapid progress in haptic applications software development. We envision a need for a standard for haptic application software modeling. This paper introduces the approach of the Unified Modeling Language based haptic software engineering. We present th... View full abstract»

In augmented reality (AR), virtual objects are rendered to appear to co-exist with a real scene and real objects. Usually augmentations are simply drawn over top of the camera image, which does not work for cases where the virtual object should be partially or completely occluded by real objects in the scene. A solution is proposed where a virtual object that approximates the shape of the real obj... View full abstract»

An untethered hand-held object whose pose can be determined automatically is useful for human-computer interaction (HCI) applications such as gaming and augmented reality (AR). Computer vision and ducial marker systems can be employed to turn ergonomic objects such as rubber balls, toy swords and guns, balloons, etc. into low cost input devices. A digital video camera such as a consumer webcam is ... View full abstract»

Participants were shown static or animated versions of a FACS-compliant avatar face in the work of P. Ekman and W.V. Friesen (1978), and asked to identify the emotion that the face was displaying. In the first version of the face, happiness, sadness, and surprise were all recognized at high rates (80% or more) whatever the stimulus type, while anger and disgust had low recognition rates. The neutr... View full abstract»

In this paper, we discuss the technologies and approaches utilized in developing a cataract eye surgery simulation that will be used for training novice surgeons. The three different techniques described in this paper, are all hapto-visual techniques that resulted in three different implementations of the application: 2D simulation, 3D immersive simulation, and completely immersive simulation. The... View full abstract»

Efficient compression of cubic-panorama datasets is crucial to reducing the required storage space and transmission bandwidth. In traditional coding schemes, cubic-panorama datasets are treated as planar image sequences with a rectangular support. In this way, it is inevitable to sacrifice some coding efficiency because of the inconsistency on the boundaries of connected side images. We have devel... View full abstract»

3D object modeling can be accomplished using fiducial markers and/or feature detectors. Fiducial markers provide high reliability of detection, however, it is undesirable to cover an object to be modeled with markers. Feature detectors can find correspondences between images but they cannot always be relied on to be usable for camera localization. A method is shown that uses the strengths of both ... View full abstract»

Camera placement plays an integral role in image-based 3D object reconstruction. Poor camera placement can lead to poor reconstruction if important silhouette or texture details are not captured in one view, if a camera is too close and the object silhouette is clipped, or if a camera is too far to provide a high-resolution capture. Some of these constraints are in contention. Manually adjusting r... View full abstract»

In this paper we present a method to record the surface texture of real life objects like metal files, sandpaper etc. These textures can subsequently be played back on virtual surfaces. Our method has the advantage that it can record textures using commonly available haptic hardware. We use the 3DOF SensAble PHANToM to record the textures. The algorithm involves creating recordings of the frequenc... View full abstract»

The continuous evolution of computer haptics, as well as the emergence of a wide range of haptic interfaces has recently boosted the haptics domain. Even though efficient tools that support the developer's work exist, little attention is paid to the reuse and compatibility of haptic application constituents. In response to these issues, we propose an XML-based description language, namely Haptic A... View full abstract»

In haptic environments, it is especially demanding to design realistic interaction paradigms and provide global navigational cues. In this paper, we present a methodology that can replace and/or augment realistic haptic environments and is inspired by the psychological basis of haptics. The system employs haptic cueing to convey information about shape, size, texture, and material of the object th... View full abstract»

This paper introduces prototype experimental apparatus to investigate stability in standing, walking and running of humanoid robots using pressure sensing at the foot contact. The preliminary experiments show that the system can provide very good spatial or temporal resolution and these can be traded off each other given the problem at hand, such as the sparsely sampled whole foot during static ba... View full abstract»

This paper describes a multi-sensory virtual reality application for astronomy education. The application developed in this work allows Grade 6-9 students to learn about the Solar System through the exploration in a virtual environment with visual, audio and haptic feedback. Evaluation by school teachers and students shows that the haptic enabled virtual reality experience makes astronomy educatio... View full abstract»

Having a correct posture at the piano requires a lot of practice to master; however, a visual feedback can help students realize potential problems and adopt a better position when playing the instrument. This paper discusses an innovative application of the techniqes used for the 3D visualization of piano performances in any possible view, with the purpose of comparing them to an ideal piano play... View full abstract»

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has been applied to many medical fields. Rehabilitation with VR technologies is one of the emerging research directions. In this paper, a rehabilitation exercise - English character handwriting training exercise is described in the haptic virtual environment. The approach can be used to guide user's hand movement on the right track of the predefined trajectory... View full abstract»