Physically-based haptic display of rigid body collisions with virtual hand interaction

The force generation and feedback of virtual hand interaction is a challenging task for the researchers in virtual reality. When virtual body grasped by virtual hand collided with other objects, operators' real hand could feel realistic impulse force, which would not only improve VR's immersion and authenticity deeply, but also help operators predict virtual objects' natural behavior and direct them interaction with virtual world. A method of collision force generation and feedback with friction for virtual hand interaction in virtual environments is proposed. Based on impulse theorem and coefficient of elastic recovery, the motion rules for virtual objects after collision are deduced. By Coulomb's friction model, this paper describes the generation of collision force in planar space which is explored to 3D virtual space, and collision force and collision moment in virtual environment are achieved. The means of collision force acting on hand is discussed, and impulsive force for each finger is calculated by virtual hand grasp optimized models with minimum force spiral. Experimental results show that using the collision force generation and feedback method, the user can sense realistic impulsive forces via the CyberGrasp data glove caused by virtual collision.