Virtual Reality: Touch/Haptics

Haptic technology does for the sense of touch what computer graphics do for vision. Haptic technology creation of computer-generated haptic virtual objects (HVOs), which can be touched and manipulated with one's hands or body. HVOs provide a rich combination of cutaneous and kinesthetic stimulation through a bidirectional haptic (touch) information flow between HVOs and human users.

Many mechanical properties of everyday objects are experienced through touch. These properties include weight and shape of objects, object elasticity, object's surface texture (e.g., smooth or rough), and so forth. HVOs can have many of these real-object mechanical properties. Perhaps more importantly, HVOs can have mechanical [Page 1037]properties that do not exist in nature. For example, HVOs can possess paradoxical, normally impossible, combinations of mechanical properties. People touching such paradoxical ...