Compact haptic and augmented virtual reality system

• US 20070035511A1
• Filed: 01/24/2006
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Inventors: Banerjee, Prashant, Florea, Lucian, Dawe, Gregory, Luciano, Cristian, Drummond, James, Zefran, Milos, Steinberg, Arnold
• Granted Patent: US 7,812,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user

Abstract

The invention provides compact haptic and augmented virtual reality system that produces an augmented reality environment. The system is equipped with software and devices that provide users with stereoscopic visualization and force feedback simultaneously in real time. High resolution, high pixel density, head and hand tracking ability are provided. Well-matched haptics and graphics volumes are realized. Systems of the invention are compact, making use of a standard personal display device, e.g., a computer monitor, as the display driver. Systems of the invention may therefore be inexpensive compared to many conventional virtual reality systems.

Claims

1. A compact haptic and augmented virtual reality system, the system comprising:

a physical desktop workspace arranged by a housing that is open on one side, the physical desktop workspace being configured for comfortably positioning a user'"'"'s head and hands with respect to the system;

a haptic touch interface,

head and hand tracking devices to track head and hand movements of a user;

a high-resolution display screen positioned by the housing with respect to a partially transparent mirror, the display screen and partially transparent mirror being positioned by the housing to create an augmented reality environment that integrates the user'"'"'s hands with virtual 3d models in the physical desktop workspace; and

a software library that provides, in real time, a high level layer that encapsulates the rendering of a scene graph on the display screen, the stereoscopic vision interface, the handling of the hand and head tracking devices, and an interface with the haptic touch interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein

further comprises a 3-d hearing interface for a user;

and

said software library further comprises software for rendering playback of 3d spatial audio on the 3-d hearing interface.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said high-resolution display screen automatically flips images so that text and data are correctly oriented in the augmented reality environment generated with the partially transparent mirror.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said partially transparent mirror comprises a half-silvered mirror.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said partially transparent mirror and said display screen are sized and arranged to permit a user to move his/her head relative to the partially transparent mirror and maintaining said augmented reality environment, said software library updating, in real-time, the scene graph on the high resolution display screen to accommodate head movement sensed by said head tracking.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said partially transparent mirror and said display screen are positioned by the housing to create a projection plane disposed at 45°

with respect to said physical desktop workspace.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said software library updates, in real-time, the scene graph on the high resolution display screen to accommodate head movement sensed by said head tracking to maintain substantially perfect graphics and haptics collocation.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the software library is implemented on a single computer.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said head tracking comprises position and orientation sensing.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said software library renders left and right views on said display screen centered according to the position and orientation of a user'"'"'s head as determined by said head tracking.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said hand tracking comprises position and orientation sensing.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said display screen and said partially transparent mirror are configured to provide near perfect visual acuity.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the visual acuity is approximately 20/25.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said head tracking and said hand tracking are measured at a frequency rate that is different than the frequency rate of said display screen.

15. A compact haptic and augmented virtual reality system, the system comprising:

display and collocation means for producing a virtual reality display volume substantially perfectly matched with a haptics workspace;

haptics means, in said haptics workspace for providing force feedback to a user based upon interaction of a user with a virtual reality environment in said virtual reality display volume;

sensing means for sensing the position and orientation of a user'"'"'s viewing perspective, said display and collocation means updating, in real time, said virtual reality display to account for changes in the position and orientation of the user'"'"'s viewing perspective.