Haptic interfaces

The core systems reproducing the feeling of touch within the MPF are two haptic devices. They are capable of exerting forces synthesized in the digital environment on the user fingers. The two types of Haptic Interfaces employed in the Pure Form system are an exoskeleton device and an external desktop device.

The anthropomorphic exoskeleton HI can be worn on the operator arm and is particularly suitable for installations in full immersive Virtual Reality environments, since can avoid the optical interferences between the projection beams of lights visualizing the computer graphics image and the robotic parts of the haptic interface.

It is composed of two subsystem, the Light-Exos and the Pure-Form Hand-Exoskeleton.

The Light-Exos is a wearable afferent-efferent robotic device that allows the user to experience a direct interaction with a Virtual Reality System. It is both a sensorized and actuated mechanism, thus allowing respectively to track the arm position and to exert forces on it. The Light-Exos can be mounted on a mobile support, which can leave the user free of moving around.

The Pure-Form-Hand-Exoskeleton (PFHE) is a portable Haptic Interface designed to exert forces of arbitrary direction and amplitude on the index and thumb fingertips, and is coupled with the the Light-Exos.

The union of these two sub-systems combines the greater workspace of the arm exoskeleton with the higher performance of the hand exoskeleton.

The Pure Form desktop devices are grounded on an external ground and reach the fingertips of the operator’s hand with thimbles that can be worn on two fingers either of the same hand or of two different hands.

Two distinct robotic arms depart from two support columns placed in front of the visualization screen. In this way the visitor, just standing in front of them, can easily interact through the device with the digital models of sculptures. The workspaces covered by the two robotic arms is large enough to leave a complete mobility to the user’s arms.