Multi-resolution haptic interaction of hybrid virtual environments

Our sense of touch is spatially focused and has a far lower bandwidth in comparison with visual sense that has the largest bandwidth. While most haptic studies utilize point interactions, resulting in a conflict between this low information bandwidth and relative complexity of virtual scene. In this paper, we investigate a novel multi-resolution force evaluation scheme of hybrid virtual models in a unified haptic interaction framework. Force contact model of tool-object interaction based on Hertz's contact theory is integrated in our work. Physical properties with different object materials expressed by Poisson's Ratio and Young's Modulus are involved to investigate most realistic perception during multi-resolution haptic interaction. The hierarchical impostor representation of surface and volumetric models are constructed, and the optimal performance based on cost and benefit evaluation at run time is employed to meet both the visual and hapic perceptual qualities. During this multi-resolution haptic interaction, our scheme adaptively determines the rendering mode using graphics and haptics impostors represented in the virtual environments. Our experimental results have demonstrated the satisfactory performance of proposed multi-resolution haptic interaction framework applicable for hybrid virtual models.