Abstract
Virtual surface characteristics of tactile displays are investigated to characterize the feeling of human touch for a haptic interface application. In order to represent the tactile feeling, a prototype tactile display incorporating Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluid has been developed. Tactile display devices simulate the finger’s skin to feel the sensations of contact such as compliance, friction, and topography of the surface. Thus, the tactile display can provide information on the surface of an organic tissue to the surgeon in virtual reality. In order to investigate the compliance feeling of a human finger’s touch, normal force responses of a tactile display under various magnetic fields have been assessed. Also, shearing friction force responses of the tactile display are investigated to simulate the action of finger dragging on the surface. Moreover, different matrix arrays of magnetic poles are applied to form the virtual surface topography. From the results, different tactile feelings are observed according to the applied magnetic field strength as well as the arrays of magnetic poles combinations. This research presents a smart tactile display technology for virtual surfaces.
Highlights
A haptic interface is a device used to probe virtual objects or environments without human interaction
Shape memory alloys [3], piezoelectric ceramics [4], ionic conductive polymer gel films [5], polymer fabrics [6] and electric motors [7] have been adopted as actuating devices in tactile display techniques
The results clearly show that different vertical force responses for different magnetic fields can be expressed by using the MR haptic display
Summary
A haptic interface is a device used to probe virtual objects or environments without human interaction. The main haptic interface research areas are biological psychology, haptic interface design. As virtual reality is requiring more realistic tactile perceptions for successful operations by haptic interfaces, more advanced techniques in the haptic interface design and control are needed to represent actual tactile feelings [1]. Pressure based tactile displays with pin-arrays utilizing piezoelectric actuators is one of the more popular mechanisms [2]. Shape memory alloys [3], piezoelectric ceramics [4], ionic conductive polymer gel films [5], polymer fabrics [6] and electric motors [7] have been adopted as actuating devices in tactile display techniques. The electro-rheological fluid technique, which provides an inexpensive alternative to the other technologies because of the simple and flexible designs, has been developed [8]
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