Virtual reality and telereality system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A teleexistence system including a virtual reality system and a telereality system;
- the teleexistence system comprising;
a force display device for displaying a force sense to an operator in response to the operator'"'"'s continuous interaction with an environment provided to the operator in the form of an image;
an image display unit for displaying said image in response to a given image signal; and
a computer for generating a force sense signal corresponding to said force sense, wherein said force display device includes control means for electrically changing the flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid in response to the force sense signal, and force providing means for providing said operator with a force controlled by said flow resistance.
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Abstract
A virtual reality or telereality (teleexistece) system which displays to an operator the changes in force senses caused by the variation of flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid by making the flow resistance, which is varied in response to the intensity of the electric field applied to the electrorheological fluid, cooperated in real time with an image (virtual world) generated by a computer or a really existing world (telereal world) connected through the intermediary of a robot.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A teleexistence system including a virtual reality system and a telereality system;
- the teleexistence system comprising;
a force display device for displaying a force sense to an operator in response to the operator'"'"'s continuous interaction with an environment provided to the operator in the form of an image;
an image display unit for displaying said image in response to a given image signal; and
a computer for generating a force sense signal corresponding to said force sense, wherein said force display device includes control means for electrically changing the flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid in response to the force sense signal, and force providing means for providing said operator with a force controlled by said flow resistance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
said computer generates said force signal in response to at least one of said image signal output from said image pick up means and said output signal from said telereal world sensor to provides said force signal to said force display device. -
5. The teleexistence system as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, wherein said environment provided in the form of an image is a virtual world, and said computer stores images of said virtual world in advance, supplies said image signal to said image display unit in response to said images of said virtual world, and supplies said force signal to said force display device in response to said images of said virtual world.
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6. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electrorheological fluid is an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Bingham fluid when electric field is applied to said electrorheological fluid.
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7. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electrorheological fluid is an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Newtonian flow when electric field is applied to said electrorheological fluid.
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8. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electrorheological fluid is composed of an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Bingham fluid and an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Newtonian flow when electric field is applied to said electrorheological fluid.
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9. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means is in the form of a ball.
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10. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising speech output means for outputting a speech related to said image.
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11. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means is in the form of a handle of a car.
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12. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means gives a tactile sense by pushing the operator'"'"'s fingers.
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13. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means comprises a fishing rod and said force providing means gives a tension force to said fishing rod.
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14. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control means in which said electrorheological fluid is filled in a space between two electrodes controls the change of the flow resistance of said electrorheological fluid by applying an electric field to said electrorheological fluid.
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15. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said two electrodes are provided stationarily.
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16. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 14, wherein one of said two electrodes is provided stationarily and the other of said two electrodes is movable.
- the teleexistence system comprising;
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17. A method for displaying a force sense to an operator in response to the operator'"'"'s continuous interaction with an environment provided to the operator in the form of an image in a teleexistence system including a virtual reality system and a telereality system;
- the teleexistence system comprising an image display unit, a computer, and a force display device including a control unit and a force providing unit, said method comprising the steps of;
displaying said image, in response to a given image signal, on said image display unit;
generating a force sense signal corresponding to said force sense;
changing electrically the flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid in response to the force sense signal, generated by said control unit, and providing said operator with a force controlled by said flow resistance. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
- the teleexistence system comprising an image display unit, a computer, and a force display device including a control unit and a force providing unit, said method comprising the steps of;
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33. A computer program product having program code means recorded therein, said program code means can be read by a computer included in a teleexistence system including a virtual reality system and a telereality system;
- the teleexistence system displaying a force sense to an operator in response to the operator'"'"'s continuous interaction with an environment provided to the operator in the form of an image and comprising an image display unit for displaying said image in response to a given image signal and a force display device for providing said operator with a force controlled by a flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid which is changed in response to a force signal, said program code means comprising;
program code means for generating said force sense signal by said computer, and program code means for synchronizing said image display unit and said force display device. - View Dependent Claims (34)
- the teleexistence system displaying a force sense to an operator in response to the operator'"'"'s continuous interaction with an environment provided to the operator in the form of an image and comprising an image display unit for displaying said image in response to a given image signal and a force display device for providing said operator with a force controlled by a flow resistance of an electrorheological fluid which is changed in response to a force signal, said program code means comprising;
Specification