Despite intense and wide-spread research in both virtual environments (VEs) and usability, the exciting new technology of VEs has not yet been closely coupled with the important characteristic of usability -- a necessary coupling if VEs are to reach their full potential. Although numerous methods exist for usability evaluation of interactive computer applications, these methods have well-known limitations, especially for evaluating VEs. Thus, there is a great need to develop usability evaluation methods and criteria specifically for VEs. Our goal is to increase awareness of the need for usability engineering of VEs and to lay a scientific foundation for developing high-impact methods for usability engineering of VEs. The first step in our multi-year research plan has been accomplished, yielding a comprehensive multi-dimensional taxonomy of usability characteristics specifically for VEs. This taxonomy was developed by collecting and synthesizing information from literature, conferences, World Wide Web (WWW) searches, investigative research visits to top VE facilities, and interviews of VE researchers and developers. The taxonomy consists of four main areas of usability issues: Users and User Tasks in VEs, general user and task characteristics and types of tasks in VEs

An environment for designing virtual instruments with 3D geometry has been prototyped and applied to real-time sound control and design. It enables a sound artist, musical performer or composer to design an instrument according to preferred or required gestural and musical constraints instead of constraints based only on physical laws as they apply to an instrument with a particular geometry. Sounds can be created, edited or performed in real-time by changing parameters like position, orientation and shape of a virtual 3D input device. The virtual instrument can only be perceived through a visualization and acoustic representation, or sonification, of the control surface. No haptic representation is available. This environment was implemented using CyberGloves, Polhemus sensors, an SGI Onyx and by extending a real-time, visual programming language called Max/FTS, which was originally designed for sound synthesis. The extension involves software objects that interface the sensors and so...

Remote driving is a difficult task. Not only do operators have problems perceiving and evaluating the remote environment, but they frequently make incorrect or sub-optimal control decisions. Thus, there is a need to develop alternative approaches which make remote driving easier and more productive. To address this need, we have developed three novel user interfaces: GestureDriver, HapticDriver and PdaDriver. In this paper, we present the motivation for and design of each interface. We also discuss research issues related to the use of gesture, haptics, and palm-size computers for remote driving. Finally, we describe lessons learned, potential applications and planned extensions for each interface.

This paper contains extensive tabular summaries of the capabilities of these devices. Although these tables are often necessarily incomplete they often contain useful pointers to workers in the field. Table 2 contains summarized information on the force feedback devices reviewed in [33]

I propose for my thesis project to build a high-performance 6 degree of freedom magnetic levitation haptic interface device, integrate its operation for use with realistic, detailed, graphically displayed three-dimensional simulated physical environments, and evaluate the effectiveness of the resulting rigidbody haptic interaction system.

Computing and machines keep getting more versatile, powerful and complex. This trend opens the door to a new level of interactivity between humans and computers. New applications bring together the human intelligence and the machine ability to carry complex tasks. The benefits of such symbiosis are safer, faster and more productive applications. However, fluent collaboration between man and machine require new tools that allow for a wider range of information to be exchanged. This encourages the development of forcefeedback devices, which exploit the often under-estimated human sense of touch. This paper describes an overview of the Delta Haptic Device developed at the EPFL, which offers 6 active degree-of-freedom together with an outstanding mechanical behavior.

While graphical visualization has advanced our ability to understand large multi-dimensional data sets, some types of data are still difficult to convey visually. Combined visual/haptic computer interfaces may allow users to explore multi-dimensional data sets more naturally, where the human haptic sense involving touch, limb position, and muscle tension provides a complementary information channel to convey certain data properties. We discuss the development of haptic rendering modes and combined visual/haptic rendering modes which can convey complex, multidimensional data. Tests to better understand human haptic and visual/haptic perception of the new data rendering elements are also outlined and initial results are presented. 1. Introduction Human vision is well-suited for 2-dimensional (2D) pattern understanding, and for identifying solid objects in 3-dimensional (3D) spaces. It is, however, less adept at understanding the following types of data: ffl scalar fields on 3D domains...

At the EPFL, we have developed a force-feedback device and control architecture for high-end research and industrial applications. The Delta Haptic Device (DHD) consists of a 6 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) mecatronic device driven by a PC. Several experiments have been carried out in the fields of manipulation and simulation to assess the dramatic improvement haptic information brings to manipulation. This system is particularly well suited for scaled manipulation such as micro-, nano- and biomanipulation. Not only can it perform geometric and force scaling, but it can also include fairly complex physical models into the control loop to assist manipulation and enhance human understanding of the environment. To demonstrate this ability, we are currently interfacing our DHD with an atomic force microscope (AFM). In a first stage, we will be able to “feel ” in real-time the topology of a given sample while visualizing it in 3D. The aim of the project is to make manipulation of carbon nanotubes possible by including physical models of such nanotubes behavior into the control loop, thus allowing humans to control complex structures. In this paper, we give a brief description of our device and present preliminary results of its interfacing with the AFM.

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Programming by human demonstration is a new paradigm for the development of robotic applications that focuses on the needs of task experts rather than programming experts. The traditional text-based programming paradigm demands the user be an expert in a particular programming language and further demands that the user can translate the task into this foreign language. This level of programming expertise generally precludes the user from having detailed task expertise because his/her time is devoted to the practice of programming, not the practice of the task. The goal of programming by demonstration is to eliminate both the programming language expertise and, more importantly, the expertise required to translate the task into the language. Gesture-Based Programming is a new form of programming by human demonstration that views the demonstration as a series of inexact "gestures" that convey the "intention " of the task strategy, not the details of the strategy itself. This is analogous...