A Study of Correlations among Image Resolution, Reaction Time, and Extent of Motion in Remote Motor Interactions

Motor interaction in virtual sculpting, dance trainings, and physiological rehabilitation requires close virtual proximity of users, which may be hindered by low resolution of images and system latency. This paper reports on the results of our investigation aiming to explore the pros and cons of using ultrahigh 4K resolution displays (4096 × 2160 pixels) in remote motor interaction. 4K displays are able to overcome the problem of visible pixels and they are able to show more accurate image details on the level of textures, shadows, and reflections. It was our assumption that such image details can not only satisfy visual comfort of the users, but also provide detailed visual cues and improve the reaction time of users in motor interaction. To validate this hypothesis, we explored the relationships between the reaction time of subjects responding to a series of action-reaction type of games and resolution of the image used in an experiment. The results of our experiment showed that the subjects’ reaction time is significantly shorter in 4K images than in HD or VGA images in motor interaction with small motion envelope.

Development of Virtual Sculpting System With Haptics in PowerWall 3-D Virtual Environment

This paper presents the research work on developing a virtual sculpting system with haptic interface integrated with PowerWall system for complex product design. The PowerWall is a large scale (10 ft by 7.5 ft) immersive Virtual Environment (VE). The approach is to apply virtual sculpting method by interactively carving a workpiece using a virtual tool. With the implementation of stereoscopic visual feedback and haptic force feedback in the PowerWall, the designer would appreciate a much better understanding of the 3D shape geometry and can explore through the 3D scene like he/she can do in the real world. The “hybrid interaction technique” is presented as solution to solve the mismatch between the small workspace of the haptic device and the large size of PowerWall system.

Surface Reconstruction Using Dexel Data From Three Sets of Orthogonal Rays

Triple-dexel modeling is a geometric representation method, which depicts the intersection of a solid with rays cast in three orthogonal directions. Due to its fast Boolean operations, simple data structure, and easy implementation, triple-dexel modeling is highly suitable for real-time graphics-based simulation applications such as numerical control (NC) machining verification and virtual sculpting. This paper presents a novel surface reconstruction method from triple-dexel data by first converting the triple-dexel data into contours on three sets of orthogonal slices and then generating the solid’s boundary surface in triangular facets from these contours. The developed method is faster than the voxel-based method, and the reconstructed surface model is more accurate than the surface reconstructed from voxel representation using the marching cube algorithm. Examples are given to demonstrate the ability of surface reconstruction from the triple-dexel model in virtual sculpting.