Geometry based haptic interaction with scientific data

Abstract

Visual representation on a traditional 3D desktop system or even an immersive virtual reality (VR) system is still hard to comprehend the inside structure of volumetric data because of data complexity, occlusion and lack of rich depth cues. In this paper, we describe a haptic representation of volumetric data in a fish tank VR system for interactive visualization. A fish tank VR system has the advantages of simplicity, high resolution, low cost and versatile. The haptic fish tank VR system that we present uses a pair of active stereoscopic shutter glasses to provide the 3D displays, a head tracker to provide the motion parallax. It allows a user to feel the inside or outside of an object in a volume by interacting with the stylus of a haptic device (a robot armature) in real time. The active force feedback enhances the 3D interaction by coupling itself with visual feedback. The combination of vision and touch introduces an effective way to investigate and estimate the properties of an object (size, shape and path) inside the volume. This system builds up a basic framework for further user study to obtain a more in-depth understanding how a user integrates visual and haptic information when he/she performs a visualization task.