GraspForm: Shape and Hardness Rendering on Handheld Device toward Universal Interface for 3D Haptic TV

The main goal of our research is to develop a haptic display that conveys the shapes, hardness, and textures of objects displayed on near-future 3D haptic TVs. We present a novel handheld device, GraspForm. This device renders the surface shapes and hardness of a virtual object that is represented in an absolute position in real space. GraspForm has a 2×2 matrix of actuated hemispheres for one fingertip, two actuated pads for the palm, and a force feedback actuator for the thumb. Our first experimental results showed that eight participants succeeded in recognizing the side geometries of a cylinder and a square prism regardless of the availability of visual information.