Applications of Haptic Systems in Virtual Environments: A Brief Review

Haptic systems and virtual environments represent two innovative technologies that have been attractive for the development of applications where the immersion of the user is the main concern. This chapter presents a brief review about applications of haptic systems in virtual environments. Virtual environments will be considered either virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) by their virtual nature. Even if AR is usually considered an extension of VR, since most of the augmentations of reality are computer graphics, the nature of AR is also virtual and will be taken as a virtual environment. The applications are divided in two main categories, training and assistance. Each category has subsections for the use of haptic systems in virtual environments in education, medicine, and industry. Finally, an alternative category of entertainment is also discussed. Some representative research on each area of application is described to analyze and to discuss which are the trends and challenges related to the applications of haptic systems in virtual environments.