Haptic authoring
Methods are presented for authoring geometrical databases which incorporate touch or haptic feedback. In particular, a database of geometrical elements incorporates attributes necessary to support haptic interactions such as stiffness, hardness, friction, and so forth. Users may instantiate objects designed through CAD/CAM environments or attach haptic or touch attributes to subcomponents such as surfaces or solid sub-objects. The resulting haptic/visual databases or world-describing models can then be viewed and touched using a haptic browser or other appropriate user interface.
1. A method, comprising:
causing a display of a graphical object in a graphical environment;
sensing a location of an avatar in the graphical environment; and
outputting a haptic sensation when the avatar contacts the graphical object.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising correlating the location of the avatar with a position of a user-manipulable graphical object.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising outputting the haptic sensation to the user-manipulable graphical object.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical object includes a surface, and wherein the avatar operates to deform the surface.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the haptic sensation includes one of a resistive force and an elastic force.
6. A processor-executable program, stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising:
code to cause a display of a graphical object in a graphical environment;
code to sense a location of an avatar in the graphical environment; and
code to output a haptic sensation when the avatar contacts the graphical object.
7. The processor-executable program of claim 6 further comprising code to correlate the location of the avatar with a position of a user-manipulable graphical object.
8. The processor-executable program of claim 7 further comprising code to output the haptic feedback to the user-manipulable graphical object.
9. The processor-executable program of claim 6 wherein the graphical object includes a surface, and wherein the avatar is operable to deform the surface.
10. The processor-executable program of claim 6 wherein the haptic feedback includes one of a resistive force and an elastic force.
11. A The computer-readable medium on which is encoded computer program code comprising:
program code for causing a graphical object to be displayed in a graphical environment;
program code for receiving a haptic attribute to be associated with the graphical object;
program code for associating the haptic attribute with the graphical object; and
program code for storing the associated haptic attribute and the graphical object in a computer-readable medium, wherein the graphical object includes a surface, and wherein an avatar is operable to deform the surface.