VR You Can Touch

Researchers at the Computer Vision Lab at ETH Zurich have developed a method with which they can produce virtual copies of real objects. The copies can be touched and even sent via the Internet. By incorporating the sense of touch, the user can delve deeper into virtual reality. The virtual object, in this case the white cylinder, is projected into the actual environment and can be felt using a sensor rod. Sending a friend a virtual birthday present, or quickly beaming a new product over to a customer in America to try out – it sounds like science fiction, but this is what researchers at the Computer Vision Lab want to make possible, with the aid of new technology. Their first step was to successfully transmit a virtual object to a spatially remote person, who could not only see the object, but also feel it and move it. The more senses are stimulated, the greater the degree of immersion in the virtual reality. While visual and acoustic simulation of virtual reality has become increasingly realistic in recent years, development in the haptic area, in other words the sense of touch, lags far behind. Up to now, it has not been possible to touch the virtual copy of an object, or to move it.

The researchers developed a method for combining visual and haptic impressions with one another. Whilst a 3D scanner records an image of the object, which in one experiment was a soft toy frog, a user simultaneously senses the object using a haptic device. The sensor arm, which can be moved in any direction and is equipped with force, acceleration, and slip sensors, collects information about shape and solidity. With the aid of an algorithm, a virtual copy is created on the computer from the measurements – even while the toy frog is still being scanned and probed. The virtual copy can be sent to another person over the Internet if desired. In order for this other person to be able to see and feel the virtual frog, special equipment is needed: data goggles with a monitor onto which the virtual object is projected, and a sensor rod which is equipped with small motors. A computer program calculates when the virtual object and the sensor rod meet, and then sends a signal to the motors in the rod. These brake the movement that is being made by the user, thereby simulating resistance. The user has the sensation of touching the frog, whilst from the outside it appears that he is touching air.

More information:

http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/100816_virtuelle_realitaet_cho/index_EN