Integrating Haptic Interaction Into An Existing Virtual Environment Toolkit

Abstract

There is increasing demand for haptic, or touch-based, interaction in virtual environments. Although many haptic devices come with APIs to enable the development of haptic-based applications, many do not provide the same level of graphical support available in virtual environment or game technology toolkits. This paper will discuss the integration of haptic interaction into an existing virtual environment toolkit. By creating a flexible middleware component, haptic interaction and force feedback for a haptic device can augment sensory experiences in existing virtual environments. A user study was conducted to evaluate the integration of haptics and realistic physics in an example virtual environment.