Measurement-based modeling of contact forces and textures for haptic rendering

Haptic texture represents the fine-grained attributes of an object's surface and is related to physical characteristics such as roughness and stiffness. We introduce an interactive and mobile scanning system for the acquisition and synthesis of haptic textures that consists of a visually tracked handheld touch probe. The most novel aspect of our work is an estimation method for the contact stiffness of an object based solely on the acceleration and forces measured during stroking of its surface with the handheld probe. We establish an experimental relationship between the estimated stiffness and the contact stiffness observed during compression. We also measure the height-displacement profile of an object's surface enabling us to generate haptic textures. We show an example of mapping the textures on to a coarse surface mesh obtained with an image-based technique, but the textures may also be combined with coarse surface meshes obtained by manual modeling.     

Sensation-preserving haptic rendering

Most human-computer interactive systems focus primarily on the graphical rendering of visual information and, to a lesser extent, on the display of auditory information. Haptic interfaces have the potential to increase the quality of human-computer interaction by accommodating the sense of touch. They provide an attractive augmentation to visual display and enhance the level of understanding of complex data sets. A haptic rendering system generates contact or restoring forces to prevent penetration into the virtual objects and create a sense of touch. The system computes contact forces by first detecting if a collision or penetration has occurred. Then, the system determines the (projected) contact points on the model surface. Finally, it computes restoring forces based on the amount of penetration. Researchers have recently investigated the problem of rendering the contact forces and torques between 3D virtual objects. This problem is known as six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) haptic rendering, as the computed output includes both 3-DOF forces and 3-DOF torques. This article presents an overview of our work in this area. We suggest different approximation methods based on the principle of preserving the dominant perceptual factors in haptic exploration.     

Layered textures for image-based rendering

An extension to texture mapping is given in this paper for improving the efficiency of image-based rendering. For a depth image with an orthogonal displacement at each pixel, it is decomposed by the displacement into a series of layered textures (LTs) with each one having the same displacement for all its texels. Meanwhile, some texels of the layered textures are interpolated for obtaining a continuous 3D approximation of the model represented in the depth image. Thus, the plane-to-plane texture mapping can be used to map these layered textures to produce novel views and the advantages can be obtained as follows: accelerating the rendering speed, supporting the 3D surface details and view motion parallax, and avoiding the expensive task of hole-filling in the rendering stage. Experimental results show the new method can produce high-quality images and run faster than many famous image-based rendering techniques.     

Layered rhombus-chain-connected model for real-time haptic rendering

The modeling and simulation of deformable objects is a challenging topic in the field of haptic rendering between human and virtual environment. In this paper, a novel and efficient layered rhombus-chain-connected haptic deformation model based on physics is proposed for an excellent haptic rendering. During the modeling, the accumulation of relative displacements in each chain structure unit in each layer is equal to the deformation on the virtual object surface, and the resultant force of corresponding springs is equivalent to the external force. The layered rhombus-chain-connected model is convenient and fast to calculate, and can satisfy real-time requirement due to its simplicity. Experimental study in both homogenous and non-homogenous virtual human liver and lungs based on the proposed model are conducted, and the results demonstrate that our model provides stable and realistic haptic feeling in real time. Meanwhile, the display result is vivid.     

Physically accurate haptic rendering with dynamic effects

We focus on the realism/transparency aspect of haptic rendering. We introduce a novel approach that enables physically correct and accurate simulation of contact wrench W/sub c/ for general rigid objects in real time, taking into account not only friction and gravity but also dynamic effects. Our method for contact force and moment simulation builds on the real-time identification of geometrically valid contact states despite digital errors. Our approach applies to general rigid bodies including both polyhedral and nonpolyhedral objects. For nonpolyhedral, curved objects, we build our contact state representation and contact force/moment model directly on the smooth and accurate representation of the object surfaces. Our approach's key idea is to solve for the contact force and moment analytically based on not only the contact configuration, but also the real-time identification of the exact type of the corresponding contact state, the type of instantaneous motion of the held object prior to reaching the contact configuration.     

Function-based approach to mixed haptic effects rendering

Commonly, surface and solid haptic effects are defined in such a way that they hardly can be rendered together. We propose a method for defining mixed haptic effects including surface, solid, and force fields. These haptic effects can be applied to virtual scenes containing various objects, including polygon meshes, point clouds, impostors, and layered textures, voxel models as well as function-based shapes. Accordingly, we propose a way how to identify location of the haptic tool in such virtual scenes as well as consistently and seamlessly determine haptic effects when the haptic tool moves in the scenes with objects having different sizes, locations, and mutual penetrations. To provide for an efficient and flexible rendering of haptic effects, we propose to concurrently use explicit, implicit and parametric functions, and algorithmic procedures.     

真实感树木绘制技术研究

真实感树木绘制技术的研究是计算机真实感图形学的一个热点领域,因为树木复杂的细节结构使其在绘制上存在着相当大的困难.主要讨论了真实感树木的绘制方法,对国内外在该领域的工作成果进行了较为系统的介绍,并对各种绘制方法的优缺点进行了分析,最后展望了该技术的发展.     

真实感海底场景的实时绘制

海底场景的仿真对于动画游戏、海洋勘测、航海驾驶、灾害救援等有着重要的应用意义。由于涉及更加复杂的海水与光线、地形等的交互,海底场景中的复杂刻蚀、光束、散射等效果是实时绘制海底场景的难点。基于海底环境的物理机理,首先提出基于线框绘制模式结合高斯滤波的方法来模拟精细的刻蚀效果,采用贴近真实的散射相位函数计算海底散射来模拟水下海水颜色,采用柱面组织的光束算法来模拟海底光线效果,并进一步给出一种基于空间划分的海底场景绘制优化方案,最后基于GPU加速技术实现了不同情况下的真实感海底场景的实时绘制。     

基于纹理和草图的图像铅笔画绘制

针对目前铅笔画生成方法中的线条不够灵活、纹理缺少方向感的问题,提出了一种基于带方向的纹理和线条草图将一幅图像转换为铅笔画风格的方法。首先,对输入图像进行直方图匹配得到图像的色调图,并将图像分割为多个区域,对每个区域,根据其颜色和形状计算其色调和方向,以此决定铅笔纹理的色调和方向;然后,通过可调整的线性卷积方法得到铅笔画的线条草图;最后,将纹理和草图结合得到铅笔画效果。运用提出的方法对不同类型的自然图像进行了铅笔画的转换,并与已有的线卷积积分方法和基于色调的方法进行了对比。实验结果表明带方向的区域纹理能更好地模拟手工铅笔画纹理的方向,可调整的线条能够更好地模拟手工铅笔画的线条的随意性和灵活性。     

Stable haptic rendering in interactive virtual control laboratory

Stable control of haptic interfaces is one of the most important challenges in haptic simulations, because any instability of a haptic interface can cause it to get far from the realistic sense. In this paper, the control strategies employed for a stable haptic rendering in an interactive virtual control laboratory are presented. In this interactive virtual laboratory, there are different scenarios to teach the control concepts, in which a haptic interface is used in the two cases of force control and position control. In this regard, two control strategies are employed to avoid instability. An energy-compensating controller is utilized to remove energy leakage. Besides, a fuzzy impedance control is used along with the energy-compensating controller for the position control scenarios. The results obtained indicate the proposed approaches practically guarantee the stability of the haptic interface for an educational application in practice.     

Efficient Monte Carlo rendering with realistic lenses

In this paper we present a novel approach to simulate image formation for a wide range of real world lenses in the Monte Carlo ray tracing framework. Our approach sidesteps the overhead of tracing rays through a system of lenses and requires no tabulation. To this end we first improve the precision of polynomial optics to closely match ground‐truth ray tracing. Second, we show how the Jacobian of the optical system enables efficient importance sampling, which is crucial for difficult paths such as sampling the aperture which is hidden behind lenses on both sides. Our results show that this yields converged images significantly faster than previous methods and accurately renders complex lens systems with negligible overhead compared to simple models, e.g. the thin lens model. We demonstrate the practicality of our method by incorporating it into a bidirectional path tracing framework and show how it can provide information needed for sophisticated light transport algorithms.     

SQ-Map: efficient layered collision detection and haptic rendering

This paper presents a novel layered and fast framework for real-time collision detection and haptic interaction in virtual environments based on superquadric virtual object modeling. An efficient algorithm is initially proposed for decomposing the complex objects into subobjects suitable for superquadric modeling, based on visual salience and curvature constraints. The distance between the superquadrics and the mesh is then projected onto the superquadric surface, thus generating a distance map (SQ-Map). Approximate collision detection is then performed by computing the analytical equations and distance maps instead of triangle per triangle intersection tests. Collision response is then calculated directly from the superquadric models and realistic smooth force feedback is obtained using analytical formulae and local smoothing on the distance map. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that SQ-Map reduces significantly the computational cost when compared to accurate collision detection methods and does not require the huge amounts of memory demanded by distance field-based methods. Finally, force feedback is calculated directly from the distance map and the superquadric formulae     

Penalty-based haptic rendering technique on medicinal healthy dental detection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - We present a penalty-based haptic rendering analysis method for medicinal dentistry diagnose simulation. The method is based on the locally optimized generalized...     

Synergistic visual/haptic rendering modes for scientific visualization

Our approach uses a visual/haptic interface to display scientific data both graphically and haptically. The haptic interface provides a natural means of interacting with the data through direct tactile sensing and manipulation of the data display. Our experience with this interface suggests that users understand the data more clearly when the haptic component acts as a synergistic companion to the visual display. That is, rather than replace the visual display of data or display disparate data haptically, the haptic component reinforces and clarifies visual information via compatible haptic data rendering.     

Function-based visualization and haptic rendering in shared virtual spaces

We seek to further expand the collaborative potential of shared virtual spaces by using haptic force-feedback. We propose how to define tangible physical properties of the objects, together with their geometry and appearance, by using mathematical functions. We illustrate this concept by developing software which allows us to touch and feel surfaces of VRML and X3D objects, convert them to solid objects, as well as create any other solid objects using the function-based extension of VRML and X3D. We define geometry, appearance and tangible physical properties of the solid objects by implicit, explicit and parametric functions straight in the VRML/X3D code or in loadable libraries. Since the function-defined models are small in size, it is possible to perform their collaborative interactive modifications with concurrent synchronous visualization at each client computer with any required level of detail. We illustrate the proposed models with several application examples.     

Six degree-of-freedom haptic rendering using spatialized normal cone search

This paper describes a haptic rendering algorithm for arbitrary polygonal models using a six degree-of-freedom haptic interface. The algorithm supports activities such as virtual prototyping of complex polygonal models and adding haptic interaction to virtual environments. The underlying collision system computes local extrema in distance between the model controlled by the haptic device and the rest of the scene. The haptic rendering computes forces and torques on the moving model based on these local extrema. The system is demonstrated on models with tens of thousands of triangles and developed in an accessibility application for finding collision-free paths.     

Realistic haptic rendering of interacting deformable objects in virtual environments

A new computer haptics algorithm to be used in general interactive manipulations of deformable virtual objects is presented. In multimodal interactive simulations, haptic feedback computation often comes from contact forces. Subsequently, the fidelity of haptic rendering depends significantly on contact space modeling. Contact and friction laws between deformable models are often simplified in up to date methods. They do not allow a "realistic" rendering of the subtleties of contact space physical phenomena (such as slip and stick effects due to friction or mechanical coupling between contacts). In this paper, we use Signorini's contact law and Coulomb's friction law as a computer haptics basis. Real-time performance is made possible thanks to a linearization of the behavior in the contact space, formulated as the so-called Delassus operator, and iteratively solved by a Gauss-Seidel type algorithm. Dynamic deformation uses corotational global formulation to obtain the Delassus operator in which the mass and stiffness ratio are dissociated from the simulation time step. This last point is crucial to keep stable haptic feedback. This global approach has been packaged, implemented, and tested. Stable and realistic 6D haptic feedback is demonstrated through a clipping task experiment.     

Discrimination of visual and haptic rendering delays in networked environments

Many networked human-machine interface systems have a distributed structure for certain purposes such as more computational power, tele-presence, collaboration, and portability. However, network delays are inevitable in the distributed structure, and often make sensory information delivered behind time to the user. In the literature, the effect of network delays on the quality of information presentation has been considered with respect to task performances in most cases. In this paper, we pay attention to a more stringent criterion, namely whether perceptual artifacts caused by network delays are perceptible by the user. We examined minimum perceptible visual and/or haptic rendering delays by measuring their discrimination thresholds between normal and delayed virtual environments with and without a task, and report the results in this paper. We also provide a simple guideline for determining whether active delay compensation algorithms are required in a networked human-machine interface system by comparing representative network delays to the measured discrimination thresholds. Recommended by Guest Editor Phill Kyu Rhee. This work was supported in parts by a grant R01-2006-000-10808-0 and a NRL grant R0A-2008-000-20087-0 both from KOSEF and by a ITRC support program C1090-0804-0002 from IITA, all funded by the Korea government. In Lee is a Ph.D student in Computer Science and Engineering at POSTECH, of Korea. He received the B.S. degree in Information and Communication Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2006. His research interests include haptics, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction. Seungmoon Choi is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and engineering at POSTECH, Korea. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Control and Instrumentation Engineering from Seoul National University in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2003. His research areas include haptics, virtual reality, data perceptualization, and applied perception.     

6DoF haptic rendering using distance maps over implicit representations

This paper presents a haptic rendering scheme based on distance maps over implicit surfaces. Using the successful concept of support planes and mappings, a support plane mapping formulation is used so as to generate a convex representation and efficiently perform collision detection. The proposed scheme enables, under specific assumptions, the analytical reconstruction of the rigid 3D object’s surface, using the equations of the support planes and their respective distance map. As a direct consequence, the problem of calculating the force feedback can be analytically solved using only information about the 3D object’s spatial transformation and position of the haptic interaction point. Moreover, several haptic effects are derived by the proposed mesh-free haptic rendering formulation. Experimental evaluation and computational complexity analysis demonstrates that the proposed approach can reduce significantly the computational cost when compared to existing methods.