We propose a new approach for interaction in Virtual Reality (VR) using mobile robots as proxies for haptic feedback. This approach allows VR users to have the experience of sharing and manipulating tangible physical objects with remote collaborators. Because participants do not directly observe the robotic proxies, the mapping between them and the virtual objects is not required to be direct. In this paper, we describe our implementation, various scenarios for interaction, and a preliminary user study.
Recently more and more research has arisen focused on the intersection between haptic feedback and collaboration. InForm @cite_1 proposed utilizing shape displays in multiple ways to manipulate by actuating physical objects. Tangible Bits was proposed to empower collaboration by manipulating physical objects at 1997 @cite_7 , and the idea was extended in 2008 @cite_14 . PSyBench, a physical shared workspace, presents a new approach to enhance remote collaboration and communication, based on the idea of Tangible Interfaces at 1998 @cite_10 . The concept of synchronized distributed physical objects was mentioned in PSyBench @cite_10 , which demonstrated the potential of physical remote collaboration. One contribution in this paper is to show how people can experience consistent physical feedback over distance, regardless of the physical configuration of the corresponding remote space. PSyBench @cite_9 only had 1-to-1 mapping while we extended the mapping style and kind of scenarios. Also objects could not be lifted and displayed the same movement without VR support. InForm @cite_1 did not support collaboration and the materials are fixed on the table, while we offer a more lightweight approach. SnakeCharmer @cite_17 had similar ideas about one-to-many mapping. However, we support collaboration and wireless.
@cite_14 @cite_7 @cite_9 @cite_1 @cite_10 @cite_17
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Current systems for real-time distributed CSCW are largely rooted in traditional GUI-based groupware and voice video conferencing methodologies. In these approaches, interactions are limited to visual and auditory media, and shared environments are confined to the digital world. This paper presents a new approach to enhance remote collaboration and communication, based on the idea of Tangible Interfaces, which places a greater emphasis on touch and physicality. The approach is grounded in a concept called Synchronized Distributed Physical Objects, which employs telemanipulation technology to create the illusion that distant users are interacting with shared physical objects. We describe two applications of this approach: PSyBench, a physical shared workspace, and inTouch, a device for haptic interpersonal communication. Given the ease that humans have with using a keyboard and mouse in typical, non-colocated computer interaction, many studies have investigated the value of colocating the visual field and motor workspaces using immersive display modalities. Significant understanding has been gained by previous work comparing physical tasks against virtual tasks, visuomotor colocation versus non-colocation, and even visuomotor rotational misalignments in virtual environments (VEs). However, few studies have explored all of these paradigms in context with each other, and it is difficult to perform interstudy comparisons because of the variation in tested motor tasks. Therefore, using a stereoscopic fish tank display setup, the goal for the current study was to characterize human performance of a 3D Fitts' point-to-point reaching task using a stylus-based haptic interface in the physical, colocated non-colocated, and rotated VE visualization conditions. Five performance measures---throughput, efficiency, initial movement error, corrective movements, and peak velocity---were measured and used to evaluate task performance. These measures were studied in 22 subjects (11 male, 11 female, ages 20--32) performing a 3D variant of Fitts' serial task under 10 task conditions: physical, colocated VE, non-colocated VE, and rotated VEs from 45---315° in 45° increments. Hypotheses: All performance measures in the colocated VE were expected to reflect significantly reduced task performance over the real condition, but also reflect increased performance over the non-colocated VE condition. For rotational misalignments, all performance measures were expected to reflect the highest performance at 0°, reduce to the lowest performance at 90°, and rise again to a local maximum at 180° (symmetric about 0°). Results: All performance measures showed that the colocated VE condition resulted in significantly lower task performance than the physical condition and higher mean performance than the non-colocated VE condition, but the difference was not statistically significant. Also, rotation misalignments showed that task performance was mostly reduced to a minimum at 90°, 135°, and 225°. We conclude that colocated VEs may not significantly improve point-to-point reaching performance over non-colocated VEs. Also, visual rotations of ±45° affected throughput, efficiency, peak velocity, and initial movement error, but the number of corrective movements were not affected until ± 90°. Physical proximity supports various forms of ad-hoc collaboration among developers such as opportunistic task adaptation and helping co-developers when they are stuck. Connecting the input output flows of stand-alone programming environments of distributed developers offers the potential to support such collaboration among them. Such a connection has several components including communication sessions, awareness of others' availability and the state of the objects on which they are working, and control channels allowing users to import edits of and share code with others and be notified when a team member has moved away from a program element of interest. It is possible to develop a collaboration-centered design that combines a variety of collaboration streams into a usable and useful user-interface, and implement the design using existing programming environment, communication, and compiler technologies. In human-computer collaboration involving haptics, a key issue that remains to be solved is to establish an intuitive communication between the partners. Even though computers are widely used to aid human operators in teleoperation, guidance, and training, because they lack the adaptability, versatility, and awareness of a human, their ability to improve efficiency and effectiveness in dynamic tasks is limited. We suggest that the communication between a human and a computer can be improved if it involves a decision-making process in which the computer is programmed to infer the intentions of the human operator and dynamically adjust the control levels of the interacting parties to facilitate a more intuitive interaction setup. In this paper, we investigate the utility of such a dynamic role exchange mechanism, where partners negotiate through the haptic channel to trade their control levels on a collaborative task. We examine the energy consumption, the work done on the manipulated object, and the joint efficiency in addition to the task performance. We show that when compared to an equal control condition, a role exchange mechanism improves task performance and the joint efficiency of the partners. We also show that augmenting the system with additional informative visual and vibrotactile cues, which are used to display the state of interaction, allows the users to become aware of the underlying role exchange mechanism and utilize it in favor of the task. These cues also improve the user's sense of interaction and reinforce his her belief that the computer aids with the execution of the task.