2011 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 189-200
In this paper, we introduced a new system for designing and evaluating the user interface of handheld devices on table-top environments using the SPIDAR-Hand system which is developed for tracking each fingertip position and giving force feedback to each fingertip with a graphical display superimposing virtual handheld devices to real background. Our system calculates 3D positions of each fingertip using the lengths of three strings and, depending on the positions, tensions of the strings are controlled to give suitable force feedback and tactile sense of manipulating a virtual device. An AR technique of optically monitoring the hand movement by camera is also introduced to trace the hand in motion images. Some simple experiments are conducted to evaluate the controllability of the virtual device using the proposed system. The reality of manipulating an actual device is still hard to generate. However, with force feedback, it is shown that the presence of the trial device is improved when the virtual trial device created by 3D CG techniques superimposed on the real images is controlled by a hand.
