Haptic interfaces are divided into two main categories: force feedback and tactile. Force feedback interfaces are used to explore and modify remote/virtual objects in three physical dimensions in applications including computer-aided design, computer-assisted surgery, and computer-aided assembly. Tactile interfaces deal with surface properties such as roughness, smoothness, and temperature. Haptic research is intrinsically multi-disciplinary, incorporating computer science/engineering, control, robotics, psychophysics, and human motor control. By extending the scope of research in haptics, advances can be achieved in existing applications such as computer-aided design (CAD), tele-surgery, rehabilitation, scientific visualization, robot-assisted surgery, authentication, and graphical user interfaces (GUI), to name a few. Advances in Haptics presents a number of recent contributions to the field of haptics. Authors from around the world present the results of their research on various issues in the field of haptics.

For a long time, human beings have dreamed of a virtual world where it is possible to interact with synthetic entities as if they were real. It has been shown that the ability to touch virtual objects increases the sense of presence in virtual environments. This book provides an authoritative overview of state-of-theart haptic rendering algorithms

This book presents a topical selection of full refereed research papers presented during the 5th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems, IPMU '94, held in Paris, France in July 1994. The topical focus is on the role of uncertainty in the contruction of intelligent computing systems and it is shown how the concepts of AI, neural networks, and fuzzy logic can be utilized for that purpose. In total, there are presented 63 thoroughly revised papers organized in sections on fundamental issues; theory of evidence; networks, probabilistic, statistical, and informational methods; possibility theory, logics, chaos, reusability, and applications.

David Parisi offers the first full history of new computing technologies known as haptic interfaces--which use electricity, vibration, and force feedback to stimulate the sense of touch--showing how the efforts of scientists and engineers over the past 300 years have gradually remade and redefined our sense of touch. Archaeologies of Touch offers a timely and provocative engagement with the long history of touch technology that helps us confront and question the power relations underpinning the project of giving touch its own set of technical media.

The term “haptics” refers to the science of sensing and manipulation through touch. Multiple disciplines such as biomechanics, psychophysics, robotics, neuroscience, and software engineering converge to support haptics, and generally, haptic research is done by three communities: the robotics community, the human computer interface community, and the virtual reality community. This book is different from any other book that has looked at haptics. The authors treat haptics as a new medium rather than just a domain within one of the above areas. They describe human haptic perception and interfaces and present fundamentals in haptic rendering and modeling in virtual environments. Diverse software architectures for standalone and networked haptic systems are explained, and the authors demonstrate the vast application spectrum of this emerging technology along with its accompanying trends. The primary objective is to provide a comprehensive overview and a practical understanding of haptic technologies. An appreciation of the close relationship between the wide range of disciplines that constitute a haptic system is a key principle towards being able to build successful collaborative haptic environments. Structured as a reference to allow for fast accommodation of the issues concerned, this book is intended for researchers interested in studying touch and force feedback for use in technological multimedia systems in computer science, electrical engineering, or other related disciplines. With its novel approach, it paves the way for exploring research trends and challenges in such fields as interpersonal communication, games, or military applications.

This volume contains 50 papers presented at the 12th International Symposium of Robotics Research, which took place October 2005 in San Francisco, CA. Coverage includes: physical human-robot interaction, humanoids, mechanisms and design, simultaneous localization and mapping, field robots, robotic vision, robot design and control, underwater robotics, learning and adaptive behavior, networked robotics, and interfaces and interaction.