Feeling a rigid virtual world through an impulsive haptic display

—In this paper the first haptic display capable of applying a true impulse to the operator is presented. The applied impulse results in an immediate change of the user’s momentum. Such a change is considered to be invaluable in making interactions with rigid virtual objects feel realistic. Conventional methods can only approximate impulses by outputting a constant force over a certain number of sample periods. The quality of these impulses is therefore limited by the maximum torque of the motor. At high interaction velocities these methods lose realism. The usage of large motors not only brings along safety issues, it also compromises the feeling of free motion. The new haptic display can generate an arbitrarily large impulse by continuously adapting the amount of momentum of a momentum wheel. At the predicted instant of contact with the virtual object, an electromagnetic tooth-clutch is engaged. The momentum wheel is mechanically connected to the handle of the haptic display and ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: AR
• Authors: Emmanuel B. Vander Poorten, Yasuyoshi Yokokohji
• Keywords: AR 2007, Haptic Displays, Impulse, Momentum Wheel