VISUALIZATION: High Fidelity Virtual Touch: Algorithms, Applications and Evaluation

力反馈装置，或触觉界面，有可能通过增加触觉来提高人机交互的质量。然而，实际的力反馈应用仍然很少，这在很大程度上是由于触觉渲染的严格计算要求。为了保持高保真系统，触觉更新率必须高达1000 Hz，而不是图形显示的30 Hz更新。这对于用于显示任意对物体的力和扭矩的6自由度（DOF）触觉设备来说尤其具有挑战性。这需要在不到一毫秒的时间内精确地确定所有碰撞点的接触和接触力和扭矩。本项目重点研究高保真触觉显示或“虚拟触摸”的三个方面。第一个目标包括开发新的基于几何和物理的算法，除了预期的处理器速度和计算能力的改进之外，这些算法还可以将目前的技术水平提高一个数量级以上。这将基于混合空间数据结构、简化层次结构、多分辨率表示、有界误差近似和大规模并行光栅化硬件。第二个目标是追求能够从高保真6自由度触觉显示器的使用中显著受益的应用。这包括纳米结构的虚拟原型，分子间生物相互作用的触觉可视化，维护分析以及交互式建模和绘画。第三个目标是评估六自由度触觉渲染系统作为人机界面的工具。这项工作将与波音公司、桑迪亚实验室和Sensable技术公司合作完成。如果成功，该研究将为设计高保真虚拟触摸系统提供使能算法和原型软件系统。

Force feedback devices, or haptic interfaces, have the potential to increase the qualityof human-computer interaction by adding the sense of touch. However, there are still few practical force feedback applications, due in large part to the stringent computational requirements of haptic rendering. In order to maintain a high fidelity system, haptic update rates must be as high as 1000 Hz, rather than the 30 Hz updates for graphical displays. This is especially challenging for 6-degree of freedom (DOF) haptic devices which are used to display forces and torques for arbitrary pairs of objects. This requires accurate contact determination and contact force and torque computation of all collision points in less than a millisecond.This project focuses on three aspects of high fidelity haptic display or ''virtual touch''. The first goal includes developing new geometric and physically-based algorithms that can improve the state of the art by more than an order of magnitude, in addition to the expected improvements in processor speed and computing power over that time. This will be based on hybrid spatial data structures, simplification hierarchies, multi-resolution representations, bounded error approximations, and massively parallel rasterization hardware. The second goal is to pursue applications that can benefit significantly from the use of high-fidelity 6-DOF haptic displays. This includes virtual prototyping of nano-structures, haptic visualization of biological interaction between molecules, maintenance analysis and interactive modeling and painting. The third goal is the evaluation of 6-DOF haptic rendering systems as a tool for human-computer interface. This will be done in collaboration with Boeing, Sandia Labs, and Sensable Technologies. If successful, the proposed research will provide enabling algorithms and a prototype software system for designing a high-fidelity virtual touch system.