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Method and system for processing force feedback effects generated at a host for playback at a physical interaction device

  • US 6,710,764 B1
  • Filed: 05/09/2000
  • Issued: 03/23/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A system for processing force feedback effect commands generated at a host computer by an application program, said system comprising:

  • (a) a physical interaction device for playing back said effects, said device being coupled to said host and configured to receive information and said force feedback effect commands and to provide information and input signals to said host for incorporation into said host application program, said device comprising;

    a controller configured to receive command signals from said host, wherein said controller includes a programmable digital memory, at least one actuator coupled to said controller and configured to receive control signals from said controller and cause a physical movement in response to said control signals, an operator manipulated component movable by an operator in at least one degree-of-freedom, and connected to and movable by said at least one actuator, and an input device coupled to said controller and configured to provide input signals to said controller, where said input signal is provided to said host by said controller for incorporation into said host application program, and (b) a computer program product comprising;

    a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for causing the processing of said force feedback effect commands for playback on said physical interaction device, said computer program product comprising;

    a computer readable program code device configured to cause a host computer to effect the initialization of said computer program when said host calls to state an intent to use said device, where said initialization creates a virtual device object, and where said virtual device object creates and initializes a simulation thread object, where said host application program is solely cognizant of the presence of said virtual device, a computer readable program code device configured to cause a host computer to effect the running operation of said computer program, where said running operation comprises;

    the running operation of said virtual device object, where said running operation of said virtual device object is closely related to said host application program'"'"'s behavior and timing, and said virtual device object receives high-level force feedback effect commands from said host application program, and the running operation of said simulation thread object, where said running operation of said simulation thread object is decoupled from said host'"'"'s application program, and where said simulation thread object receives high-level force feedback effect commands from said virtual device object and classifies said high-level force feedback effect commands into a simulated effects and native effects categories, where simulated effects are effects which are independent of the response of said device, and native effects are force effects which are dependent on the input and response of said device, and where said native effects are locally processed by said device, and where said simulated effects are processed by said host, translates said high-level force feedback effect commands into a set of simplified effects, where said simplified effects include both simulated and native effects, and periodically updates said physical interaction device by transferring to it a subset of said simplified effects comprising (n) simplified effects for on-device storage and playback, which comprise at least one simulated effect and as many as (n−

    1) native effects, and where said at least one transferred simulated effect is a vector sum of all application program simulated effects computed by said device driver software program, and where said (n−

    1) transferred native effects are the (n−

    1) top prioritized native effects selected by said device driver software program, and where said periodic updates implement a swapping operation of the highest (n−

    1) top rated native forces.

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