A wearable encounter-type haptic device suitable for combination with visual display

Abstract

This paper describes a wearable encounter-type haptic device suitable for combined usage with a visual display. The features of the device lie in a driving mechanism that enables an encounter-type haptic display and the compact implementation of the entire device including the driving mechanism. The driving mechanism displays a natural haptic sense based on a smooth transition between follow-up and constraint of finger movements. The compactness is important because it contributes to preserving the quality of visual information when used together with a visual display. To test the basic performance of the device, the response of the driving mechanism was evaluated. The haptic display function was evaluated by a simulation in which the device is used to touch an object in a computer graphics (CG) space.