Virtual reality and telereality system

• US 6,310,604 B1
• Filed: 01/17/1997
• Issued: 10/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Asahi Kasei Kabushiki Kaisha (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Asahi Kasei Kabushiki Kaisha (Asahi Kasei Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Akio, Furusho, Junji, Sano, Akihito
• Primary Examiner(s): WU, XIAO MIN
• Application Number:
  US08/776,054
• Time in Patent Office: 1,747 Days
• Field of Search: 345/161, 345/184, 345/156, 345/157, 345/158, 345/163, 345/168, 345/173, 340/407.1, 364/410, 463/31, 482/4, 482/52, 251/5
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: C10M 171/001 Electrorheological fluids; smart fluids
• 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 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user

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.

Claims

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.

2. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a sensor for detecting mechanical variables of said force display device, wherein an output signal from said sensor is fed back to said computer, so that said computer controls at least one of said force display device and said image display unit in response to the output signal from said sensor.

3. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said force display device comprises active force providing means for outputting a force display corresponding to the control in which said control means changes the flow resistance of the electrorheological fluid.

4. The teleexistence system as claimed in any one of the claims 1-3, wherein said environment provided in the form of an image is a telereal world, and said teleexistence system further comprises image pick up means for outputting said image signal by picking up said telereal world, and a telereal world sensor for detecting mechanical actions in said telereal world and for feeding an output signal of said telereal world sensor back to said computer, and wherein

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.

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.

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.

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.

9. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means is in the form of a ball.

10. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising speech output means for outputting a speech related to said image.

11. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means is in the form of a handle of a car.

12. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said force providing means gives a tactile sense by pushing the operator'"'"'s fingers.

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.

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.

15. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said two electrodes are provided stationarily.

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.

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.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said teleexistence system further comprises a sensor for detecting mechanical variables of said force display device, said method further comprising steps of feeding back the output signal from said sensor to said computer and controlling by said computer at least one of said force display device and said image display unit in response to the output signal from said sensor.

19. The method system as claimed in claim 18, wherein said force display device further comprises a driving system, said method further comprising a step of driving said force providing unit by said driving system.

20. The method system as claimed in the claim 17, wherein said environment provided in the form of an image is a telereal world, and said teleexistence system further comprises an image pick up unit for picking up said telereal world and a telereal world sensor, said method further comprising steps of outputting said image signal from said image pick up unit, detecting mechanical actions in said telereal world by said telereal world sensor, feeding an output signal of said telereal world sensor back to said computer, and generating said force signal in response to at least one of said image signal output from said image pick up and said output signal from said telereal world sensor to provide said force signal to said force display device.

21. The method as claimed in claim 17, 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, said method further comprising steps of supplying said image signal to said image display unit in response to said images of said virtual world, and supplying said force signal to said force display device in response to said images of said virtual world.

22. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said electrorheological fluid is an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Bingham fluid when electric field is applied to said electrorheological fluid.

23. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said electrorheological fluid is an electrorheological fluid exhibiting Newtonian flow when electric field is applied to said electrorheological fluid.

24. The method as claimed in claim 17, 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.

25. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said force providing means is in the form of a ball.

26. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said teleexistence system further comprises a speech output unit, said method further comprising a step of outputting a speech related to said image by said speech output unit.

27. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said force providing unit is in the form of a handle of a car.

28. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said force providing unit gives a tactile sense by pushing the operator'"'"'s fingers.

29. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said force providing unit comprises a fishing rod and said force providing unit provides a tension force to said fishing rod.

30. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said control unit 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.

31. The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein said two electrodes are provided stationarily.

32. The teleexistence system as claimed in claim 30, wherein one of said two electrodes is provided stationarily and the other of said two electrodes is movable.

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.

34. The computer program product as claimed in claim 33, wherein said program code means further comprises program code means for giving said image signal to said image display unit.