Shinoda & Makino Laboratory
Haptoclone creates 3D visual images of objects and produces haptic interactions with the 3D images. The system has two small workspaces and they are completely symmetrical. A person’s hand or an object in a workspace is cloned to the other workspace and two people in front of the two workspaces can touch each other through their 3D images with haptic feedback. They need neither glasses nor gloves for the visual and haptic experiences. The maximum force for haptic feedback is small, but the force position and timing are faithful. The 3D clone images are created optically by passive micro-mirror-arrays and haptic interactions are produced by the radiation pressure of airborne ultrasound. The contact points between the cloned images and real objects are observed by optical sensors and the contact force is created by concentrating ultrasound energy emitted from the ultrasound phased array surrounding the Workspace.
