A remote collaboration system using hand-force virtual environment

Collaboration is a communication configuration which is a basic to human society. If a virtual working environment is connected by networking in order to allow sharing by multiple users, an efficient remote collaboration system will be realized. This paper presents a remote collaboration system which enables operators at remote sites to collaborate by maintaining a virtual environment that includes hand-force interaction over a network. To support smooth remote collaboration, the virtual environments at different sites must all be maintained the same. It is difficult, however, to realize simultaneous access of multiple users to the same object. It is shown in this paper that the hand-force virtual environment enables multiple users to have simultaneous access to the same object, so that smooth remote collaboration is supported. It is also shown that the sense of shared activity is enhanced by hand-force environment. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 80(4): 51–59, 1997