General Information

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Project Description

Interactions with Large-Volume virtual worlds are challenging to model realistically. In the haptic domain a balance needs to be achieved between forcefulness and system stability. An experimental testbed will be constructed utilizing a pair of force feedback interfaces and a large stereo (3D) display. The real-time haptic scene graphs will be built around Unity, a popular video game engine.

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Weekly Log

Week 1:

I moved in to Busch Campus on Sunday. I also met with my professor to speak about my project for the summer. I will be designing an experimental protocol to test the feasibility of haptic feedback in virtual environments. We plan to implement haptic feedback using two Phantom Premium 3.0 devices, and build the virtual world in Unity.

Week 2:

This week I focused more on researching haptic feedback. I looked into haptic packages that are compatible with the Phantom device - the two I found were Sensegraphics' H3D and Sensable/Geomagic's OpenHaptics. Because OpenHaptics isn't publicly accessible, I spent a good portion of the week running through the C++/Python/X3D-based H3D tutorials. On Thursday we also moved the two arms into the lab. We ran into a small hardware bump - the device communicates with the computer using an odd 37-pin cable, and there isn't a corresponding port on our lab computer.

Week 3:

I sent in my first draft of the experimental protocol to my professor this week. I was also able to obtain an academic license for OpenHaptics - this is great because we found a paper from Carnegie Mellon and Cornell describing a project that combined the haptics capability of the Phantom Omni (different, newer device by the same company) with the graphics capabilities of the Unity video game engine. As for the cable, I was hoping to find a USB adaptor but was unsuccessful. The only thing we were able to find was a PCI card for $700. Before taking further action, we decided to contact the Sensable support line and are currently awaiting their response. At the same time we are beginning to consider alternative haptic feedback devices.

Week 4:

We heard back from Sensable - the Phantom devices we have in the lab are discontinued and incompatible with newer computers. Thus, we are instead developing the project using two Novint Falcon force feedback devices. We have started development of the virtual environment in Unity and were able to develop a dll that lets Unity manage 2 Falcon devices at once. I have also started creating the haptic model for the bow and arrow, which is the main user interface in our project.

Week 5:

This week we developed the core functionalities of the video game: (1) Database set-up and scripts, (2) Design of Haptic models, and (3) Haptic pairing of Falcon Devices. (1) Database scripting includes being able to access/update the database from within a Unity project (2) Haptic modeling pertains to determining exactly how the force-feedback device directs itself at every point in its work envelope. (3) Pairing the haptic devices pertains to being able to link 2 devices in a master-slave configuration so that one can react to impulses in the other.

Week 6:

This week we completed integration of the three parts of the project from last week. All pieces were assembled into a single Unity project, and we moved the computer upstairs to the Virtual Reality Lab. The stereo TV also arrived on Wednesday. Lastly, we started recruiting subjects for the study, to begin next week.

Week 7:

We scheduled all 40 subjects for this week and completed the study on Thursday. I also gave my DIMACS final presentation on Friday. Data analysis comes next.

Week 8:

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Presentations

• First Presentation

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Additional Information

• My Mentor
  • Dr. Grigore Burdea
• Partners
  • Pierre-Antoine Lelan
  • Abdou Belghalem
• Other Projects
  • Visualizing Twitter Trends