Use Of Haptic Devices Research Articles

(75) - Absent Sounds: Use of Haptic Devices for LVAD Alarms in a Patient with Hearing Loss

(75) - Absent Sounds: Use of Haptic Devices for LVAD Alarms in a Patient with Hearing Loss

Anatomy of a Hug in Virtual Reality

Over time, there has been an increase in research on how to improve emotional state rehabilitation processes, and it is notable that the use of technology has had a positive result, with increasing accuracy. Serious Games (SG) for Virtual Reality (VR) are extremely beneficial in this regard, and the use of haptic devices as a tool for researchers and medical teams is increasing in popularity. The current study aims to conduct an initial investigation into the use of a haptic vest to see if haptic touch can aid in emotional conditioning, which may result in improved disease and phobia rehabilitation, and whether different interactions with virtual scenarios, such as a virtual hug, can increase immersiveness. The investigation seeks to discover the most effective ways to convey a virtual to physical hug using the haptic device. Previous research has revealed a high level of participant interest, as well as increased immersion in SGs realism, leading to additional research and implementation.

Feeling Connected: The Role of Haptic Feedback in VR Concerts and the Impact of Haptic Music Players on the Music Listening Experience

Today, some of the most widely attended concerts are in virtual reality (VR). For example, the videogame Fortnite recently attracted 12.3 million viewers sitting in homes all over the world to a VR Travis Scott rap concert. As such VR concerts become increasingly ubiquitous, we are presented with an opportunity to design more immersive virtual experiences by augmenting VR with other multisensory technologies. Given that sound is a multi-modal phenomenon that can be experienced sonically and vibrationally, we investigated the importance of haptic feedback to musical experiences using a combination of qualitative and empirical methodologies. Study 1 was a qualitative study demonstrating that, unlike their live counterparts, current VR concerts make it harder for audiences to form a connection with artists and their music. Furthermore, VR concerts lack multisensory feedback and are perceived as less authentic than live concert experiences. Participants also identified a variety of different kinds of touch that they receive at live concerts and suggested that ideal VR concerts would replicate physical touch and thermal feedback from the audience, emotional touch, and vibrations from the music. Specifically, users advocated for the use of haptic devices to increase the immersiveness of VR concert experiences. Study 2 isolated the role of touch in the music listening experience and empirically investigated the impact of haptic music players (HMPs) on the audio-only listening experience. An empirical, between-subjects study was run with participants either receiving vibrotactile feedback via an HMP (haptics condition) or no vibrotactile feedback (control) while listening to music. Results indicated that listening to music while receiving vibrotactile feedback increased participants’ sense of empathy, parasocial bond, and loyalty towards the artist, while also decreasing participants’ feelings of loneliness. The connection between haptics condition and these dependent variables was mediated by the feeling of social presence. Study 2 thus provides initial evidence that HMPs may be used to meet people’s need for connection, multisensory immersion, and complex forms of touch in VR concerts as identified in Study 1.

Use of haptic devices in education: A review

Use of haptic devices in education: A review

Virtual Reality Haptic Device for Mental Illness Treatment

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that alters mental functioning and can cause hallucinations, mental disorientation, and a variety of other symptoms, which results in a separation of schizophrenics from society. Despite the fact that the condition has been known about for a long time, there is still an urgent need for research and testing to develop better therapies.Virtual reality (VR) has had interesting outcomes when used to treat illnesses, and it is gradually emerging as a viable technical choice for the healthcare sector due to its immersion, which offers better and more intense user experiences. Once linked to a serious game, it can introduce the user to a number of situations that, when combined with medical assistance, aid in their rehabilitation and treatment.The use of haptic devices enhances VR immersion by enabling users to comprehend virtual environments with greater nuance, which increases their level of believing in the new environment they are in. When used in conjunction with VR, it can improve the efficacy of the treatment, making its use viable for the treatment of psychic diseases.The goal of this research is to develop haptic vest interactions using a three-dimensional virtual testing scenario to support and improve the use of VR for rehabilitation and therapy for schizophrenia. The established functionalities can be applied to a further serious game with the same focus.

Modifying Texture Perception With Pseudo-Haptic Feedback for a Projected Virtual Hand Interface

Human body augmentation makes it possible to obtain new abilities that we cannot achieve with our actual bodies. A projected virtual hand interface is a promising approach for body augmentation because it can extend a user’s reach in daily life without the need to wear a device. Although users can manipulate a projected virtual hand as if it were their own hand and can interact with distant objects through it, they cannot feel the sensation of touch when the projected virtual hand is overlaid on a real object. In this paper, we propose a novel pseudo-haptic feedback framework to provide users with the tactile texture of objects without the use of haptic devices. We designed three types of visual effects that produce unevenness, slipperiness, and softness. The experimental results indicate that the proposed visual effects can lead users to feel the intended tactile sensation. Furthermore, the visual effects provide users with tactile sensations with three to five levels of intensity without producing a strange feeling.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Rehabilitation Through Force Feedback

The present paper proposes a carpal tunnel syndrome oriented system by means of the use of haptic devices with force feedback. The system, based on entertainment, handles different applications, as well as movements in a 3D graphic environment, which is devised with daily tasks that allow to develop skills and abilities to reduce the patient´s affection. The system is designed with Unity3D along with Novint Falcon haptic device. In which, the patient interacts with the developed applications while receives force feedback, at the same time, the patient performs physiotherapeutic exercises that attack the affection in a proper manner to improve patient´s health. Experimental results manifest system´s validity, which generates necessary and efficient exercises for the process of carpal tunnel rehabilitation, besides, it deploys a human-machine interaction oriented to the development of physic therapies.

Teledildonics and New Ways of "Being in Touch": A Phenomenological Analysis of the Use of Haptic Devices for Intimate Relations.

The aim of this paper is to analyse teledildonics from a phenomenological perspective in order to show the possible effects they will have on ourselves and on our society. The new way of using digital technologies is to merge digital activities with our everyday praxes, and there are already devices which enable subjects to be digitally connected in every moment of their lives. Even the most intimate ones are becoming mediated by devices such as teledildonics which digitally provide a tactual stimulation allowing users to have sexual intercourse through them. The efforts made in order to provide such an intertwinement of our everyday lives and digital technologies are evident, but the effects produced by them are not clear at all. This paper will analyse these technologies from a phenomenological perspective in order to understand their effects on the constitution of the subjects and on our society at the intimate level.

Design and Construction of a Bilateral Haptic System for the Remote Assessment of the Stiffness and Range of Motion of the Hand.

The use of haptic devices in the rehabilitation of impaired limbs has become rather popular, given the proven effectiveness in promoting recovery. In a standard framework, such devices are used in rehabilitation centers, where patients interact with virtual tasks, presented on a screen. To track their sessions, kinematic/dynamic parameters or performance scores are recorded. However, as Internet access is now available at almost every home and in order to reduce the hospitalization time of the patient, the idea of doing rehabilitation at home is gaining wide consent. Medical care programs can be synchronized with the home rehabilitation device; patient data can be sent to the central server that could redirect to the therapist laptop (tele-healthcare). The controversial issue is that the recorded data do not actually represent the clinical conditions of the patients according to the medical assessment scales, forcing them to frequently undergo clinical tests at the hospital. To respond to this demand, we propose the use of a bilateral master/slave haptic system that could allow the clinician, who interacts with the master, to assess remotely and in real time the clinical conditions of the patient that uses the home rehabilitation device as the slave. In this paper, we describe a proof of concept to highlight the main issues of such an application, limited to one degree of freedom, and to the measure of the stiffness and range of motion of the hand.

30am2-PN-58 触知覚における触感因子を考慮した統合的触感ディスプレイ

It has been found that human recognize tactile sensations by feeling the following four factors (friction, smoothness, hardness, thermal). A tactile display that can represent the four factors mentioned earlier was developed. This tactile display makes use of haptic devices an ultrasonic vibrator and a thermal display. The haptic devices reproduce the feeling of friction. The ultrasonic vibrator reproduces the feeling of smoothness and hardness by modulating the amplitude of the wave flowing through the material. The thermal display which consist of a Peltier element, reproduces the thermal feeling of materials. The tactile display presented and simulated to users different types of cloth materials; test subjects were able to discriminate the difference and properly tell which tactile display was simulating which cloth.

Immersive and Haptic Educational Simulations of Assembly Workplace Conditions

Abstract The paper presents a number of different approaches for creation of realistic immersive educational simulations of conditions of a workplace for assembly operations with aid of haptic and Virtual Reality systems. Such simulations can be used for effective training of future operators of a given workplace and testing its ergonomic quality without need of building a physical prototype. The authors have devised several different approaches to preparation of virtual workplace prototypes for training. The basic approach is utilization of immersive VR systems (Head-Mounted Devices combined with user tracking solutions) to create an interactive simulation of a workplace, on the basis of its CAD model and specification of a realized process. The second approach is using a haptic manipulator with force feedback for interaction with a virtual workplace, for more realistic feeling of a realized activity. The third, novel approach is combination of the two previous approaches. A special system was designed and built for this purpose. It uses a large-space robot to allow haptic feedback for a user equipped with an immersive set of devices. More and more often virtual prototypes of the workplaces replace the physical ones as an innovative training solutions that allow to train the future operators or improve ergonomic quality of the workplace. The reason for that is the reduction of costs needed to develop the real prototype of the workstation as well as ability of complex virtual workplaces to change the variants in order to investigate different situations. Usually such workplaces - created as interactive Virtual Reality applications - consist of a visualization operated with aid of advanced Virtual Reality systems and devices. Implementation of an immersive equipment increases sense of user's presence and use of haptic devices with force feedback makes the experience more similar to reality. The level of realism is a very important factor in an immersive and haptic simulations of workstations for training purposes. As a form of instructional simulation, also called educational simulation, immersive and haptic simulations are a powerful learning tools that require trained users to complete tasks or to solve specific problems within VR environment that replicates the real workplace conditions19. Trainings conducted is this way are particularly beneficial when real activities and task conducted at the workplace is too dangerous, too costly or even almost impossible to do. The two basic approaches presented by the authors are innovative and important on their own, but they usually do not mix, as state-of-the-art haptic devices are stationary. Their application heavily limits spatial freedom of a user, which does not affect the level of realism of presented simulations in a positive way. In order to fully simulate the conditions of an assembly workplace, tactile input must be available, with simultaneous immersion of a user into a Virtual Environment (VE) using a HMD or a CAVE system combined with the user tracking solution. The third approach to simulation of workplace conditions, proposed by the authors, allows to bring a realistic force feedback into an immersive visualization. Thanks to this, operations like assembling a threaded joint between two parts can be trained more realistically than before, without need of building a full physical workplace.

A new user-adapted search haptic algorithm to navigate along filiform structures.

One of the mayor research challenges of this century is the understanding of the human brain. Regarding this field line, simulation based research is gaining importance. A large amount of money is being spent in huge international projects such as The Human Brain Project [1] and The Blue Brain [2]. The behavior of the brain and, therefore, the behavior of brain simulations depend to a large extend on the neural topology. Neural elements are organized in a connected, dense, complex network of thread-like (i.e., filiform) structures. The analysis of a computer-based simulation using just the visual modality is a highly complex task due to the complexity of the neural topology and the large amounts of multi-variable and multi-modal data generated by computer simulations. In this paper, we propose the use of haptic devices to aid in the navigation along these neural structures, helping neurobiologists in the analysis of neural network topologies. However, haptic navigation constrained to complex filiform networks entails problems when these structures have high frequency features, noise and/or complex branching nodes. We address these issues by presenting a new user-adapted search haptic method that uses the forces exerted by the users to infer their intentions. In addition, we propose a specific calibration technique to adapt the haptic navigation to the user's skills and to the data. We validate this approach through a perceptual study. Finally, we show in this paper the application of our method to the analysis of dense and complex filiform structures in the neurobiology context. Additionally, our technique could be applied to other problems such as electronic circuits and graph exploration.

Improving Experiential Learning with Haptic Experimentation

Experiential learning reflects the idea of knowledge construction as a behavior change resulting from the interaction between the user and the environment leading to experiences, feelings and sensations. The use of virtual simulators in education is a path to foster experiential learning because they provide interactive environments that students can explore and observe. The use of haptic devices with these simulators adds a new dimension, touch, increasing their immersive capacity and the studentsâ?? attraction and interest. Physics is an area particularly well-suited for the application of haptic simulators. The study of forces, for instance, is an area normally taught in a very abstract and theoretical way and students have extreme difficulty in relating those concepts with their practical application. The â??Forces of Physicsâ? haptic simulator described in this article allows experimenting various forces of physics such as the friction force, the aerodynamic force and the gravitational force.

Let's Use Haptics!

The concept and the use of haptic devices need to be disseminated and they should become familiar among young people. At present haptics are used in many everyday tasks in different fields. 
 Additionally, their use in interaction with virtual reality applications simulating real systems sense of touch will increase the usersâ?? realism and immersion and, consequently, they will contribute to improve the intrinsic knowledge to the simulationsâ?? goals.
 However, haptics are associated with expensive equipment and usually they offer several degrees of freedom. The objective of this work is to make their cost not much more expensive than a â??specialâ? mouse by offering a low cost solution with just one degree of freedom (1DOF) useful in many simple cases.
 Additionally, it is also an objective of this work the development of simple virtual reality systems requiring interactions only requiring one degree of freedom. 
 A low cost, single-axis force-feedback haptic device of 1 degree of freedom has been developed. For evaluating the interest of this prototype a â??Spring Constantâ? application was built and used as a demonstrator. The complete system - the haptic interacting with the â??Spring Constantâ? - will be described in the present work.

Development of a Visio‐Haptic Integrated Dental Training Simulation System

The use of haptic devices in the medical field has become widespread in the last decade. In this study, a visio-haptic dental training system is developed using haptic and stereoscopic devices. Several advantages are offered by such a simulation system, including effective learning without any fear of making mistakes on a patient, possibility of repeating various dental operations, ease of evaluating student performance, and low-cost dental training even without an instructor. In this study, the biomechanical properties of enamel, dentin, pulp, and caries were modeled, and the parameters were fine-tuned to provide more realistic haptic sensations. Maxillary and mandibular dental arches and various dental instruments such as mouth mirror, probe, and dental drills were modeled in a 3D virtual environment. Probing and cavity preparation on teeth were implemented in the training system. Various graphical rendering methods (Surface Rendering in CPU, Iso-Surface Rendering, and Ray-Casting in GPU) were implemented and compared in performance. The implementation details and the software structure used are described. Finally, detailed performance tests by a group of dentists are conducted, and the results of these tests are presented. The performance tests found that dentists have a strong motivation to use the system and that in the aspects of usability, clarity, effectiveness, help/support provided, and satisfaction, the users' responses were above average.

How Does Artificial Force Feedback Affect Laparoscopic Surgery Performance?

The use of haptic devices to provide force feedback in teleoperation has been shown to enhance performance. An experiment was conducted to examine whether artificial force feedback is utilized in the same manner as real force feedback in a simulated laparoscopic tissue-probing task. Forces in probing a double-layer silicon gel mass were replicated and exaggerated in a virtual environment using a haptic device. Ten subjects performed the probing task in four different conditions: 1) realistic force feedback, 2) exaggerated feedback, 3) disproportionately exaggerated forces, and 4) reversed and disproportionately exaggerated forces. Results showed a significantly higher maximum force, detection time and error rate in virtual probing than in real probing. Time to task completion was significantly different between the virtually realistic and exaggerated force feedback conditions. These results suggest that artificial force information may be processed differently than real haptic information, leading to higher force application, inefficiency, and reduced accuracy in tissue probing tasks.

A Multimodal Reservoir-Simulation Environment

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper IPTC 10281, "Muse: A Multimodal Reservoir Simulation Environment," by J.A. Pita, SPE, N.M. Al-Zamel, and A.H. Dogru, SPE, Saudi Aramco, prepared for the 2005 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Doha, Qatar, 21-23 November. A new environment integrating a voice-advisory system with multimodal visualization was built for Saudi Aramco's in-house reservoir simulator. Engineers can simultaneously visualize oil saturation, hear changes in reservoir pressure, and feel rock permeability interactively as they move a 3D mouse throughout the reservoir. Engineers also can provide operational and surveillance rules so that the computer automatically checks conditions on any variables. The system can take a number of actions, such as using sound synthesis to speak directly to the engineer, when these conditions occur. The system runs on a Microsoft Windows-XP-based personal computer (PC) with dual processors. Introduction New-generation reservoir simulators, capable of handling millions of cells, imply that geological detail can be handled without intensive scaling up, which can lead to direct seismic integration with reservoir simulation. Unfortunately, the ability to analyze information has not fully kept pace with these advances. Recently, devices that function as a "3D mouse" with haptic (i.e., touch) capabilities have appeared. These devices have the ability to navigate and probe inside Earth models. Saudi Aramco's Multimodal Simulation Environment (Muse) is an environment that integrates a voice-advisory system with multimodal visualization. This environment provides stereo-capable 3D visualization, force feedback by use of haptic devices, and data sonification. Multimodal Data Analysis In contrast with conventional environments that provide only 3D visualization as the means for data interpretation and analysis, this system uses two additional "channels" for sensorial interaction: touch (haptics) and sound (sonification). Reservoir-simulation results that are loaded into the system can be attached to one or more of these three channels. The number of data volumes (i.e., simulation variables) that can be loaded is limited only by the amount of addressable system memory, but only three volumes can be attached to channels. The other volumes resident in the system can be toggled at any time into the channels. All loaded volumes, either attached to channels or not, can be monitored by the system by use of rules prescribed by the engineer. For example, the engineer can visualize 3D pressure distribution, feel permeability changes with the haptic device, and hear oil or gas saturation through the system speakers. The values of these properties are assigned to a range of 0 to 255, similar to a typical color map. Also, simulation results such as 3D distribution of the mole fraction of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) or acoustic impedance from a petroelastic model can be tracked as events, even if they are not directly attached to any channels. Visualization Channel So-called "rainbow" color maps are typical (e.g., blue for low values, red for high). The color map panel is fully editable, and engineers can choose the upper and lower limits to concentrate on specific value ranges, if so desired. Figs. 1 through 3 show typical 3D displays of different simulation-output variables (pressure, gas saturation, and H2S mole fraction, respectively). Fig. 1 also shows the channel selection menu. A separate opacity map enables parts of the volume to be made translucent to reveal only specific ranges of the data. The data shown correspond to a nine-component compositional simulation of 500,000 cells for a gas/condensate reservoir.