Convincing Touching of Rigid Virtual Environments

Convincing Touching of Rigid Virtual EnvironmentsDaniela ConstantinescuPh.D. Candidate
Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of British Columbia, VancouverABSTRACTTouching of virtual objects entails exchange of energy with a virtual environment via force interactions. Convincing touching of computer models is potentially useful in a large number of applications. For example, engineers could discover design flaws sooner by operating virtual prototypes; doctors could practice surgery on virtual brains; and the popularity of computer games would increase even further if users could touch the virtual characters and objects. However, few examples of force interaction with virtual environments have been demonstrated to date. This is because physically realistic exchange of energy is challenging to guarantee at the high frequencies required by our sense of touch. This talk presents an approach for physically-motivated energy transfer between users and virtual environments comprising rigid objects. Three features distinguish the proposed approach from prior work. First, the approach allows users to feel collisions. Collisions enhance the perceived rigidity of virtual objects and the stability of the interaction. Second, the approach permits unrestricted operation of virtual linkages. Users can hold linkages from any link and can move then through singularities. Third, the approach caches data provided by any commercial simulation engine on the force control microprocessor. It then uses the cached data to transfer energy via interaction torques in addition to interaction forces. Hence, the approach provides a general-purpose force interface to interactive virtual environments. Software developers may lack understanding of the energy transfer involved in touching computer models. Nonetheless, the interface enables them to add realistic forces to interactive virtual worlds. The talk discusses the methods developed in the proposed approach.

Location: (GER) 309

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Shah Nirav