Mapping Workspaces to Virtual Space in Work Using Heterogeneous Haptic Interface Devices

Abstract

In networked haptic environments, users can touch objects in a virtual space and feel the weight of the objects by manipulating haptic interface devices (Srinivasan & Basdogn, 1997). Thus, we can largely improve the efficiency of collaborative work such as remote surgery simulation and immerse ourselves in playing networked games. On the other hand, a variety of haptic interface devices have been developed so far. The haptic interface devices have different specifications (e.g., the workspace size, position resolution, and exertable force) from each other. When we interconnect the devices over a network, the differences may cause some problems. There are a few papers addressing the problems (Hirose et al., 1998; Kameyama & Ishibashi, 2007; Fujimoto et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2008). In (Hirose et al., 1998), Hirose et al. develop basic software called Haptic Interface Platform (HIP), which does not depend on types of haptic interface devices. Then, they show that users do not notice meaningful differences in hardness in an experiment where the users recognize the hardness of an object although the users manipulate different types of haptic interface devices. In (Kameyama & Ishibashi, 2007), the authors clarify the influences of difference in workspace size between PHANToM Omni (Salisbury & Srinivasan, 1997) (just called Omni here) and PHANToM Desktop (Salisbury & Srinivasan, 1997) (called Desktop) for networked collaborative work and competitive work. They show that if the range of motion of a haptic interface device is not limited to a workspace which is smaller than the virtual space, there is no large influence of the difference on the efficiency of the collaborative work and the fairness of the competitive work. Otherwise, the efficiency of the collaborative work seriously deteriorates, and the fairness is damaged in the competitive work. In (Fujimoto et al., 2008), the authors handle collaborative work using Omni and SPIDAR-G AHS (Kim et al., 2003) (called SPIDAR). And they compare some methods of mapping workspaces to a virtual space. In (Huang et al., 2008), the authors treat collaborative work using Omni, Desktop, SPIDAR, and Falcon (Novint, 2007) when the size of a virtual space is small so that it is not necessary to map workspaces to the virtual space. However, the experiment with various haptic interface devices in the case where we need mapping (that is, the size of a virtual space is different from the size of each workspace) has not been performed. 33