WO2016129883A1

WO2016129883A1 - Thimble type tactile presentation apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2016129883A1
Application number: PCT/KR2016/001280
Authority: WO
Inventors: 오용환; 최우혁; 허성문; 김재하; 박재영
Original assignee: 한국과학기술연구원
Priority date: 2015-02-12
Filing date: 2016-02-05
Publication date: 2016-08-18
Also published as: KR101643576B1

Abstract

A thimble type tactile presentation apparatus, which is applied to an interface system for moving an avatar in response to a movement of a finger so as to present tactile sensation to the tip of the finger, comprises: a body for supporting the finger; and a contact plate fixed to the body, wherein the contact plate can be moved with respect to the body such that, when a predetermined touch occurs on the avatar, the contact plate is moved so as to come into close contact with the tip of the finger and exerts pressure on the tip of the finger, and when the touch on the avatar is released, the contact plate is moved away from the tip of the finger and releases the pressure.

Description

Intangible tactile presentation device

The present invention relates to an apparatus for presenting an intangible tangible feel, and more particularly, an apparatus for presenting an tangible tangible touch which can clearly distinguish whether an avatar corresponding to a user's fingertip is in contact or non-contact situation in a virtual / enhanced / remote environment. It is about.

[Description of National Support R & D]

This study was supported by the Korea Research Foundation (Global Frontier Project, Development of 4D + Sensory-based Physical Collaboration Technology between Remote Users, Task No. 1711017258) under the auspices of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

With the development of the industry, various interface systems for operating a remote slave robot or a virtual graphic (hereinafter referred to as "avatar") are developed at the user's will in a virtual environment, augmentation environment, and a remote environment.

Since the human hand is capable of precise movement, it is widely used as a means for driving such an interface system.

In such an interface system, since the avatar to be controlled and the environment in which the avatar operates are spaces that the user cannot directly experience, an apparatus for providing a tactile feel to the user for more realistic and sophisticated control has been devised.

1 is a diagram of a reverse haptic device that measures the position of a fingertip of a user according to the prior art and provides a sense of force to a user by precisely applying a controlled force vector (FIG. 1 of U.S. Patent 5,587,937).

When the user moves the finger while inserting the finger into the thimble end effector 200, while the links connected to the end effector 200 are operated, the position of the end of the finger is kinematically determined.

The position movement data of the finger tip is used to move the position of the avatar.

When the avatar is unable to move in contact with a specific object such as an external object, the

motors

120, 130, and 140 provided in the haptic device drive a link to provide a force in a direction opposite to the direction in which the user's finger is to move. As a result, the user's finger can no longer move in the direction in which he or she was trying to move (or it becomes awkward to move in the same direction), allowing the user to feel that the avatar is in contact with the object.

However, according to this prior art, since the tip of the finger is always in close contact with the thimble end effector, a certain amount of pressure is applied all the way to the tip of the finger regardless of whether the avatar is in contact with the object. There is always a problem at your fingertips.

The present invention is to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, according to whether the contact between the avatar and the specific object in the environment that corresponds to the movement of the user's fingertips in the virtual / augmented / remote environment, contact mode and contactless mode It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for presenting an intangible tactile sensation that can be mechanically converted so that a user can more clearly distinguish whether a user contacts or not.

In order to achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for presenting an intangible tactile sensation, which is applied to an interface system that moves an avatar in response to the movement of a finger, to present a tactile sense at the end of a finger, And a contact plate fixed to the body, wherein the contact plate is configured to be movable relative to the body, and moves in close contact with the tip of the finger when the contact plate occurs in a predetermined contact with the avatar. There is provided a bone intangible tactile presentation device that presses the tip and moves away from the tip of the finger when the contact with the avatar is released.

According to one embodiment, the contact plate is formed to move linearly with respect to the body, the end of the finger is located between the body and the contact plate.

According to one embodiment, the thimble tactile presentation device comprises tension means for pulling the contact plate towards the body and elastic means for pushing the contact plate in an opposite direction of the body.

According to one embodiment, the tensioning means is a wire.

According to one embodiment, the interface system has a link portion that operates according to the movement of the finger and defines a position of the tip of the finger kinematically, and the body is fixed to the end of the link portion.

According to one embodiment, the interface system includes a motor capable of operating the link unit, and when generated in contact with the avatar, the motor operates the link unit to provide a sense of interference that interferes with the movement of the finger.

1 is a view of a haptic device according to the prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the bone intangible tactile presentation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3A and 3B illustrate the bone-intangible tactile presentation device of FIG. 2 in non-contact and contact modes, respectively.

4 is a conceptual diagram of an interface system according to an embodiment to which the bone-intangible tactile presentation device of FIG. 1 is applied.

5 illustrates a case where an avatar serving as a control object of the interface system is a remote slave robot.

FIG. 6 illustrates a case where an avatar serving as a control object of the interface system is a virtual graphic.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, this is described as one embodiment, whereby the technical spirit of the present invention and its core configuration and operation are not limited.

2 is a perspective view of the bone-intangible tactile presentation device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, according to the present embodiment, the tactile display device 1 includes a body 10 through which a finger can be held, and a contact plate 20 fixed to the body 10. .

The body 10 includes a body portion 11 having a shape of “b” and an

annular fixing portion

12 and 13 disposed at a rear end of the body portion 11 to wrap and fix the node of a finger. do.

The

annular fastening portions

12, 13 consist of two segments and are fixed by screws. The spacing between the two sections can be adjusted according to the user's finger thickness.

The rear end of the body portion 11 is provided with an obliquely extending tongue 14 and a rotating plate 15 coupled to the tongue 14. The rotating plate 15 is rotatably coupled to the link 102 belonging to the link portion of the interface system, and the entire tactile presentation device 1 is rotatably formed with respect to the link portion.

The contact plate 20 includes a contact portion 21 which is recessed in correspondence with the shape of the finger tip and a connection portion 22 to which the contact portion 21 is fixed at one end.

The user wears the tactile presentation device 1 in such a way as to pass the finger through the

fixing parts

12 and 13 to seat the fingertips on the contact part 21. That is, the end of the finger is located between the body 10 and the contact plate 20. With this configuration, the tip of the finger can be pressed quickly and accurately.

The connection part 22 is formed in a substantially "W" shape, the top surface is inserted into the slit formed in the vertical direction in the body portion (11).

The contact plate 20 is linearly movable relative to the body 10 in the direction of the slit.

On the upper surface of the connecting portion 22 inserted into the body portion 11, the wire 31, which is a tension means capable of pulling the contact plate 20 toward the body 10, and the opposite direction of the body 10 Spring 32 is provided as an elastic means for applying an elastic force to push the contact plate 20 to the.

The tactile display device 1 according to the present embodiment moves the position of the contact plate 20 according to the contact / non-contact state.

FIG. 3A shows the tactile presentation device 1 in a non-contact state, and FIG. 3B shows the tactile presentation device 1 in a contact state.

As shown in FIG. 3A, in the non-contact mode, the contact portion 21 of the contact plate 20 moves to the lowest end and does not touch the tip of the finger.

As shown in FIG. 3B, in the contact mode, the wire 31 is wound through the motor 33 (see FIG. 5) to pull the contact plate 20 upward. The contact portion 21 that is raised upward is in close contact with the fingertips to apply pressure to the fingertips.

When the contact state is released, the tension applied to the wire 31 is released. Accordingly, the contact plate 20 is moved downward in a moment by the restoring force of the spring 32 to return to the original position shown in FIG. 3A.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, since the tension is adjusted using a wire, the structure of the finger presses the tip of the finger to actively cope with a change in contact pressure between the avatar and the object, thereby providing a more realistic feeling to the user. In addition, since the pressure is released momentarily by the spring, the feeling of contact can be instantaneously eliminated.

The tactile display device 1 according to the present embodiment may be applied to an interface system capable of moving a remote or virtual slave robot or a virtual graphic in response to the movement of a finger.

4 schematically illustrates an interface system according to an example for applying the tactile presentation device 1 according to the present embodiment.

The interface system according to the present embodiment borrows the configuration of the haptic device disclosed in Patent Document 1 as it is. The same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 1 of Patent Document 1 among the reference numerals shown in FIG. 5 are intended to have the same structure, function, and operation.

The tactile display device 1 according to the present embodiment is coupled to the end of the link 102 located at the far end, and the intermediate link 106 includes a motor for moving the contact plate 20 up and down through the wire 31 ( 33) is combined. The position of the motor 33 is not limited to the intermediate link 106.

The interface system according to the present embodiment includes three

motors

120, 130, and 140 and four link portions connected thereto.

However, the interface system according to the present embodiment is not limited to the structure of FIG. 4. It is provided with a link portion which operates according to the movement of a finger inserted into the tangible tactile presentation device 1 and can define the position of the end of the finger mechanically according to the angle of the joint, and within the limits allowed by the structure of the link portion. It is to be understood that any structure that can limit the positional movement of the tactile presentation device 1 by limiting or changing the posture of the link unit through the motor can be used as the interface system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a case where the avatar serving as the control object of the interface system is the slave robot 40.

The slave robot 40 has a robot hand 41 that can touch and grip the object 42 through a user's pinch or stretch hands.

The position of the tactile presentation device 1 (i.e., the end of the finger) is defined through the kinematic relationship of the link portion, and correspondingly the position of the end of the robot hand 41 is designated. Each actuator of the robot 40 is controlled to move the end of the robot hand 41 to the designated position. On the other hand, the position of the end of the robot hand 41 is fed back to the interface system.

While the robot hand 41 is located at a position (free-space) irrespective of the object, the contact plate 20 of the tactile presentation device 1 remains in the non-contact state shown in FIG. 3A.

When the user moves his or her finger to bring the slave robot 40 close to the object 42 and the touch of the robot hand 41 to the object 42 is detected, the contact plate 20 of the tactile presentation device 1 is detected. As shown in FIG. 3B, the finger moves in close contact with the fingertip of the finger and presses the fingertip of the finger.

By the pressing of the contact plate 20, the user can intuitively know that the robot hand 41 of the slave robot 40 has contacted the object 42.

When the user's motion to grip the object 42 with a greater force while the robot hand 41 is in contact with the object 42 is detected, the wire 33 is further wound by the motor 33 to contact the contact plate ( 20) The user's fingertips may be forced to press with greater force.

That is, the tactile presentation device 1 may provide the user with a more realistic feeling by causing the contact plate 20 to press the tip of the finger in response to the pressure between the avatar and the object in contact with the avatar.

When the robot hand 41 puts down the held object 42, the tension applied to the wire 31 is released, and accordingly, the contact plate 20 of the tactile display device 1 is shown in FIG. 3A. Likewise, the pressure is released from the tip of the finger.

The pressure is released momentarily by the action of the spring 32, and the user can be sure that the contact with the avatar has been released.

6 illustrates a virtual graphic 60 which is another form of an avatar that is a control object of the interface system.

A three-dimensional room 50 is defined on the monitor, and in the room 50 a graphic 60 that is a control object of the interface system is displayed. In FIG. 6, the graphic 60 is simply shown as a circle, but the hand shape may have various shapes.

The side 52 of the room 50 is designated as a contact area to which the graphic 50 can contact. That is, the graphic 50 cannot exit outside of the side surface 52.

As the user moves the finger, the position of the tip of the finger is defined through the kinematic relationship of the link portion of the interface system of FIG. The position movement information of the tip of the finger is replaced with the position of the graphic 60 in the virtual space (ie, the space on the monitor), and the graphic 60 moves in response to the movement of the finger.

When the user moves the graphic 60 at a position (eg, a position 62) in a free movement space that does not contact the side wall 52, the contact plate 20 of the tactile presentation device 1 is shown in FIG. Maintain the non-contact state shown in 3a.

When the user places the graphic 60 on the sidewall 52 and exerts a force to move the graphic rightwards beyond the sidewall 52, the computer determines that contact has occurred with the graphic 60 and the sidewall 52. .

When such a contact occurs, the interface system drives the

motors

120, 130, 140 to pull the tactile presentation device 1 to the left, thereby preventing the user from moving the finger in the right direction. Accordingly, the user can recognize that graphic 60 has contacted sidewall 52.

On the other hand, at the same time, the contact plate 20 of the tactile presentation device 1 is moved in close contact with the fingertip of the finger, as shown in FIG. 3B, to press the fingertip of the finger.

The pressing of the contact plate 20 allows the user to know with certainty that the graphic 60 is in contact with the side wall 52.

If the user wishes to push the graphic 60 deep into the room while in contact with the side wall 52 (move to 61), the interface system does not restrict the user's x, y axis movements, but the z axis Direction, the force is applied in a direction opposite to the direction of the user's finger movement to cause the finger to actually move in the left direction. Through this force, the user can feel as if the finger moves in contact with an obliquely visible sidewall according to the principal of the three-dimensional space.

At this time, since the graphic 60 is located in the area of the side wall 52 which is the contact area, the contact plate 20 is still in close contact with the tip of the finger and is pressed.

On the other hand, if the user pushes the graphic 60 to the right while the graphic 60 is in contact with the side wall 52, the interface system correspondingly increases the torque of the motor to restrain the user's movement. In this case, the wire 31 may be further wound by the motor 33 so that the contact plate 20 may press the fingertip of the user with a greater force. That is, the tactile presentation device 1 may provide the user with a more realistic feeling by causing the contact plate 20 to press the tip of the finger in response to the pressure between the avatar and the object in contact with the avatar.

Positioning the graphic 60 into the free movement space 62 releases the tension applied to the wire 31, thereby contacting the finger 20 of the tactile presentation device 1 with the finger as shown in FIG. 3A. Release the pressure apart from the ends of the.

When the graphic 60 contacts the object 51 again designated as the contact area, the contact plate 20 moves back to the contact position of FIG. 3A to provide a feeling of contact.

According to the tactile display device according to the present embodiment, whether or not the avatar as the control object has touched the target object to be touched is transmitted to the user by a contact plate which is mechanically relocated, so that it is unnecessary in the free motion space. The contact feeling can be eliminated, and the contact space can provide a sure touch feeling to the user.

Claims

As an intangible tactile presentation device that can be applied to an interface system that moves an avatar in response to the movement of a finger, the tactile touch can be presented at the tip of a finger.

A body supporting the finger;

A contact plate fixed to the body,

The contact plate is configured to be movable in position with respect to the body,

When the information indicating that a predetermined contact has occurred to the avatar is transmitted to the interface system, the contact plate is controlled to move in close contact with the tip of the finger to press the tip of the finger,

And when the information indicating that the contact with the avatar is released is transmitted to the interface system, the contact plate is controlled to move away from the tip of the finger to release the pressure.
The method of claim 1,

The contact plate is formed to move linearly with respect to the body,

The tip of the finger is bone intangible tactile display device, characterized in that located between the body and the contact plate.
The method of claim 2,

Tension means for pulling said contact plate towards said body,

And an elastic means for pushing said contact plate in the opposite direction of said body.
The method of claim 3,

The bone intangible tactile display device, characterized in that the tension means is a wire.
The method of claim 1,

The interface system has a linkage that operates according to the movement of the finger and defines the position of the tip of the finger kinematically,

The body is bone intangible tactile display device, characterized in that fixed to the end of the link portion.
The method of claim 5,

The interface system includes a motor capable of operating the link portion,

And the motor operates the link unit when the contact with the avatar occurs to provide a feeling of interference that interferes with the movement of the finger.