Effective Cooperative Haptic Interaction over the Internet

We present a system that enables, for the first time, effective transatlantic cooperative haptic manipulation of objects whose motion is computed using a physically-based model. We propose a technique for maintaining synchrony between simulations in a peer-to-peer system, while providing responsive direct manipulation for all users. The effectiveness of this approach is determined through extensive user trials involving concurrent haptic manipulation of a shared object. A CAD assembly task, using physically-based motion simulation and haptic feedback, was carried out between the USA and the UK with network latencies in the order of 120ms. We compare the effects of latency on synchrony between peers over the Internet with a low latency (0.5ms) local area network. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, when using our technique, the performance achieved over the Internet is comparable to that on a LAN. As such, this technique constitutes a significant step forward for distributed haptic collaboration

[1]  A. P. French,et al.  General Physics , 1926, Nature.

[2]  Blake Hannaford,et al.  Virtual Training for a Manual Assembly Task , 2001 .

[3]  Xiaojun Shen,et al.  A heterogeneous scalable architecture for collaborative haptics environments , 2003, The 2nd IEEE Internatioal Workshop on Haptic, Audio and Visual Environments and Their Applications, 2003. HAVE 2003. Proceedings..

[4]  Cagatay Basdogan,et al.  An experimental study on the role of touch in shared virtual environments , 2000, TCHI.

[5]  T. Başar,et al.  A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems , 2001 .

[6]  Matt Adcock,et al.  Using collaborative haptics in remote surgical training , 2005, First Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. World Haptics Conference.

[7]  Praktische Informatik.  Consistency in Replicated Continuous Interactive Media , .

[8]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  The effects of network delays on group work in real-time groupware , 2001, ECSCW.

[9]  Leslie Lamport,et al.  Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system , 1978, CACM.

[10]  Steve Pettifer,et al.  A network architecture supporting consistent rich behavior in collaborative interactive applications , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[11]  Michael Zyda,et al.  A Taxonomy for Networked Virtual Environments , 1997, IEEE Multim..

[12]  David R. Jefferson,et al.  Virtual time , 1985, ICPP.

[13]  Frederick P. Brooks,et al.  Project GROPE-HapticDisplays for Scientific Visualization , 1990 .

[14]  Kirsten Rassmus-Gröhn,et al.  Supporting presence in collaborative environments by haptic force feedback , 2000, TCHI.

[15]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  The Intuitive/sup TM/ telesurgery system: overview and application , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[16]  Grigore C. Burdea,et al.  Force and Touch Feedback for Virtual Reality , 1996 .

[17]  Kyoung Shin Park,et al.  Effects of network characteristics on human performance in a collaborative virtual environment , 1999, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality (Cat. No. 99CB36316).

[18]  Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto,et al.  Transatlantic Touch: A Study of Haptic Collaboration over Long Distance , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[19]  James M. Van Verth,et al.  Adding force feedback to graphics systems: issues and solutions , 1996, SIGGRAPH.

[20]  Ming C. Lin,et al.  ArtNova: touch-enabled 3D model design , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality 2002.

[21]  F. Brooks,et al.  Feeling and seeing: issues in force display , 1990, ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games.

[22]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Managing Collaboration in the nanoManipulator , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[23]  Russell M. Taylor,et al.  VRPN: a device-independent, network-transparent VR peripheral system , 2001, VRST '01.

[24]  B. Hannaford,et al.  Virtual Coupling Schemes for Position Coherency in Networked Haptic Environments , 2006, The First IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2006. BioRob 2006..

[25]  A. Michotte.  The perception of causality , 1963 .

[26]  Michael Zyda,et al.  Networked virtual environments - desgin and implementation , 1999 .

[27]  W R Ferrell.  Delayed Force Feedback1 , 1966, Human factors.

[28]  Steve Pettifer,et al.  DEVA3: architecture for a large-scale distributed virtual reality system , 2000, VRST '00.

[29]  Martin Mauve,et al.  Local-lag and timewarp: providing consistency for replicated continuous applications , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia.

[30]  Michael Zyda,et al.  A Future for Entertainment-Defense Research Collaboration , 2001, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[31]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Haptic Collaboration over the Internet , 2000 .

[32]  Blake Hannaford,et al.  Architectures for shared haptic virtual environments , 1997, Comput. Graph..

[33]  Shervin Shirmohammadi,et al.  An end-to-end communication architecture for collaborative virtual environments , 2001, Comput. Networks.