JPH11203019A - Tactile display - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tactile display which can display the tactile information including the surface shapes, hardness, etc., and also can feel the object as if it were held by both hands. SOLUTION: Plural pins are placed in parallel to each other in their axial directions on the tactile display screens 3a and 3b of display parts 2a and 2b and move in their axial directions to show the surface shapes and hardness. The parts 2a and 2b are attached to the movable objects 5a and 5b which can turn around the (z) axis. Both objects 5a an 5b are fixed to the actuators 4a and 4b and can move in the (x) direction. A computing element 6 calculates the surface shape data and the hardness data to be displayed and outputs them to the parts 2a and 2b. The element 6 also outputs the position and attitude command value of the part 2a to the actuator control circuits 7a and 7b as necessary. The circuits 7a and 7b control the actuators 4a and 4b to secure those command value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tactile display as a human interface device, and more particularly to a tactile display for presenting tactile information such as virtual reality, multimedia, and surface shape and hardness for the visually impaired.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of virtual reality and multimedia technologies in recent years, there is an increasing demand for presentation of tactile information. This is because adding tactile information to conventional sound or video information enhances bodily sensibility. For example, if you can obtain tactile information such as unevenness and softness through a computer network or database, even if you can not usually touch the artworks displayed in the museum, you can compare them with sound and video only. , Will feel more realistic.

[0003] The tactile information includes force information such as softness and shape information such as a feeling of unevenness. Examples of the force information presenting include SensAble Tech.
There is PHANToM from Nologies. This is to show the reaction force at a certain point by the arm type robot, but it takes time to touch the shape of the target.

There is a three-dimensional force tactile display device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-257947 which uses an environment presenting tool for presenting sides, corners, curved surfaces, etc., but is excellent in recognizing a specific shape. However, for objects that cannot be reproduced by the environment presentation tool, such as the presentation of texture or unevenness, like the arm-type PHANToM, it presents a reaction force at a certain point. Take it.

[0005] As an example showing the shape of the surface,
There is a three-dimensional pin display described in Japanese Patent No. 96863. It has a plurality of pins and presents Braille and graphics by changing the position of each pin in the axial direction. Since the shape is presented on the surface, it takes a relatively short time to touch the target shape. Since the direction of the target to be presented is limited,
It is necessary to take countermeasures such as rotating the object while presenting the presentation surface and presenting the entire shape in sequence.

[0006]

In the above-mentioned system, since only one surface is presented and the upper surface is on a desk, the user can only touch a laid object from one direction. For example, when presenting vases or sculptures, tactile information can be presented only by stroking from above on the surface placed on the desk, and you could not taste the volume and three-dimensional feeling of the original object .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to enable tactile wrapping with both hands and to transmit information with a higher sensation, such as a three-dimensional effect and a volume effect. It is to provide a tactile display.

[0008]

The object of the present invention is to provide a reference surface which is a reference for presenting tactile information, and to change the height and hardness of the reference surface in the normal direction at least at a plurality of positions on the reference surface. In a haptic display, the reference plane is achieved by a haptic display characterized in that there are at least two normal directions.

In the tactile display of the present invention, there is provided a calculating means for calculating tactile information to be presented on the reference plane based on the tactile data to be presented and the position and posture data of the reference plane or the target value of the position or posture. It is further characterized by having. The haptic information includes at least one of shape and hardness information. Further, the tactile sense presenting means includes a plurality of pins arranged at intervals from each other, and an actuator for driving each of the pins in the axial direction. further,
The reference surface is a curved surface or has a plurality of divided surfaces, and a normal direction of each of the plurality of surfaces is directed to a different direction. In this case, it is characterized by having a position / posture changing means capable of changing the relative positions and postures of the plurality of surfaces. Further, according to a change in the relative positions and postures of the plurality of surfaces, the tactile information presented on the reference surface is changed. The normal direction of the reference plane is substantially perpendicular to the direction of gravity.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A tactile display according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, a schematic configuration of the tactile display according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the tactile display shown in FIG. 1, a display unit 2a and a display unit 2b for presenting tactile information such as surface shape and hardness are provided. The display unit 2a has a tactile sense presentation surface 3a. A plurality of pins to be described later are arranged in the tactile sense presentation surface 3a in parallel in the axial direction, and the plurality of pins move in the axial direction to exhibit a surface shape and hardness.

The display unit 2a is attached to the moving body 5a so as to be rotatable around the z-axis. The moving body 5a is fixed to the display unit moving actuator 4a, and is movable in the x direction. Although not shown, the display unit moving actuator 4
At a, a sensor for measuring the position of the moving body 5a, that is, the display unit 2a in the x direction and the rotation angle (posture) around the z axis is attached. Signals from these sensors are sent to the arithmetic unit 6 via the sensor signal processing circuit 8a.

On the other hand, the display unit 2b is provided with a tactile presentation surface 3
b. A plurality of pins are also arranged on the tactile sense presentation surface 3b in parallel in the axial direction, and the plurality of pins move in the axial direction to present a surface shape and hardness.

The display unit 2b is attached to the moving body 5b so as to be rotatable around the z-axis. The moving body 5b is fixed to the display unit moving actuator 4b and is movable in the x direction. Although not shown, the display unit moving actuator 4
A sensor for measuring the position of the moving body 5b, that is, the display unit 2b in the x direction and the rotation angle (posture) around the z axis is attached to b. Signals from these sensors are sent to the arithmetic unit 6 via the sensor signal processing circuit 8b.

The arithmetic unit 6 has an original shape to be displayed.
Based on the hardness data and the position and orientation data of the display units 2a and 2b, or based on the target values of those positions and orientations, surface shape data and hardness data to be displayed on the display units 2a and 2b are calculated. , And outputs a command value to the display units 2a and 2b. The surface shape data to be instructed at this time is a row of individual position data of the pins on the display units 2a and 2b. The hardness data is a data string of the individual proportional gains of the pins.

The arithmetic unit 6 outputs command values for the position and orientation of the display unit 2a to the actuator control circuit 7a as necessary, and outputs command values for the position and orientation of the display unit 2b to the actuator control circuit 7b. . The actuator control circuits 7a and 7b control the actuators 4a and 4b, respectively, so that the command values are obtained.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the display unit 2a,
The state of a plurality of pins arranged in 2b will be described.
FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a plurality of pins according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 2A, each pin 10
Is provided with a pin groove 27, and a gear 26 is engaged with the pin groove 27. Also, the pin groove 2 of the pin 10
Gear 2 of pin 10 so that 7 meshes with gear 26
A roller 25 is provided that contacts the surface opposite to the surface 6 and maintains the posture of the pin 10. The gear 26 is adapted to be rotated by a motor 24 attached coaxially thereto. Although not shown, a pin 10
A position sensor for measuring the position of the camera is mounted. The position sensor outputs a signal by converting the axial position of the pin 10 from the motor rotation angle. The rotational movement of the motor 24 is converted into a linear movement via the gear 26 and the pin groove 27, so that the pin 10 can move in the axial direction.

A cap 14 is attached to the tip of the pin 10. The cap 14 can be touched by a person's finger or hand. The pin 10 projects through the shaft hole provided in the frame 15 to the outside world, and the cap 14 at the tip of the pin 10 is thicker than the shaft hole and is always located outside the frame 15. Each pin 1
0 is the lowest position, that is, each cap 14
Hereinafter, the surface formed by the tip of each cap 14 at the position closest to the frame 15 will be referred to as a reference surface, and the position of the pin 10 when the tip of the cap 14 is located on the reference surface will be referred to as the reference position.

FIG. 2B is a sectional view showing another example of the plurality of pins in the present embodiment. In FIG. 2B, when the pin 10 is lowered to the lowest position, the tip of the pin 10 is retracted into the frame 15. Therefore, the outer surface of the frame 15 is the lowermost surface on which the tactile sensation can be presented. In this case, this is used as a reference surface, and when the pin 10 is located below the reference surface, the reference position of the pin 10 is used.

Next, the display units 2a and 2b will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. In FIG. 3, the surface shape / hardness command value sent from the calculator 6 (not shown) is stored in the memory 13. As described above, the surface shape / hardness command value is applied to each pin 10 (here, pin 1
0a to 10c, and corresponding components will be distinguished by adding suffixes a to c) in the axial direction and a proportional gain. Memory 13
After the surface shape / hardness command value is stored in the memory 13, the drive circuit controller 12
The target positions a to c and data as the proportional gain are sequentially extracted and sent to the pin drive circuits 11a to 11c.

The pin driving circuits 11a to 11c are provided with the input target position of the pin, the proportional gain, and the pins 10a to 1c.
This circuit drives the motors 24a to 24c based on data from the position sensors 23a to 23c of 0c to perform position feedback control. By changing the proportional gain, the hardness of the object to be presented in the axial direction can be changed.

Next, the original shape data and the pin 10
The relationship between the target positions will be described. FIG. 4 shows one section of the display units 2a and 2b cut along a plane parallel to the xy plane of the coordinate system shown in FIG. 1, and shows a target height of a pin 10 presenting the shape of an object from a reference plane. Indicates the value. FIG. 4A shows a state where the reference plane is parallel to the y direction, and FIG. 4B shows a state where the position and orientation of the reference plane have changed with respect to FIG. 4A. .

In FIG. 4A, the reference plane 1 of the display units 2a and 2b is positioned with respect to the original display shape contour.
When 9a and 19b are parallel to the y direction as shown in the figure,
The length of each of the lines 16a and 16b extending from the reference planes 19a and 19b to the contour of the original display shape perpendicularly to each pin 1
The target position is 0. As shown in FIG. 4B, when changing the direction in which the original shape contour is to be presented, the positions and postures of the display units 2a and 2b are moved to move the reference planes 19a and 19b. Then, the target position of each pin 10 in that state is calculated. This calculation is performed by the calculator 6. After the calculation, the display unit 2a,
A surface shape command value which is a data string of the target position of each pin 10 is sent to 2b. After that, as explained earlier,
The position of each pin 10 is controlled, and the display units 2a, 2
The surface shape is presented on the tactile sense presentation surfaces 3a and 3b of b.

The tactile presentation surfaces 3a, 3a,
The direction of 3b may be changed. In this case, the arithmetic unit 6 does not output the position and orientation command values to the actuator control circuits 7a and 7b. Instead, the sensor signal processing circuit 8a,
8b, the position and orientation data of the display units 2a and 2b are read, the positions and orientations of the reference planes 19a and 19b are obtained, and a surface shape command value is calculated.

Although the target position of the pin 10 has been described above, when the hardness of the object to be presented changes depending on the part, the target value of the hardness of each pin 10 (in accordance with the position and posture of the tactile sense presentation surfaces 3a and 3b). (Proportional gain) is calculated by the calculation unit 6.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the actuator for moving the display unit. This actuator is shown in FIG.
The display unit moving actuators 4a and 4 shown in FIG.
Instead of b, multi-degree-of-freedom manipulators 17a and 17b are used. By doing so, the display unit 2
The positions and postures of a and 2b can be changed three-dimensionally.

As described above, according to the tactile display according to the present embodiment, the tactile information is presented in two or more directions, so that the tactile information can be wrapped in both hands, and the tactile information can be sensed in three dimensions. Highly sensible information can be transmitted.

Next, a tactile display according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The tactile display according to the present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that there is no actuator for changing the positions and postures of the display units 2a and 2b, and the tactile display is placed on a fixed surface 18 such as a desk. have. The display units 2a and 2b can be arbitrarily arranged manually.
Further, two receivers 20a to 20d fixed to the display units 2a and 2b respectively to measure the positions and postures of the tactile sense presentation surfaces 3a and 3b, and the display units 2a and 2b
The transmitter 21 is arranged at a position separated from “b”. The transmitter 21 and the receivers 20a to 20d are often used in the field of motion capture, and for example, a magnetic type or an ultrasonic type can be used.

In the tactile display according to the present embodiment, first, the sensor signal processing circuit 8 uses the receiver 20 based on the individual signals of the transmitter 21 and the receivers 20a to 20d.
The positions of a to 20d are obtained, and the obtained position information is output to the arithmetic unit 6. In the arithmetic unit 6, in the same manner as described in the first embodiment, based on the original shape / hardness data to be displayed and the position and orientation data of the display units 2a and 2b, or their positions and orientations The surface shape data and hardness data to be displayed on the display units 2a and 2b are calculated based on the target values of
A command value is output for 2b. The surface shape data to be instructed at this time is a row of individual position data of the pins 10 in the display units 2a and 2b. The hardness data is a data string of the individual proportional gains of the pins 10.

FIG. 7 shows a receiver 20 according to this embodiment.
The positional relationship between a to 20d and the reference planes 19a and 19b is shown. The reference plane 1 is determined from the individual positions of the receivers 20a to 20d.
The positions and orientations of 9a and 19b are calculated by the calculator 6, and a surface shape command value is calculated based on this and the original display shape data to issue a command.

As described above, also in the tactile display according to the present embodiment, by presenting tactile information in two or more directions, tactile sensation in a form of being wrapped with both hands can be performed, and a sense of sensation such as a three-dimensional effect and a volume effect can be obtained. High-quality information can be transmitted.

Next, a tactile display according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8, the display unit 2 is provided with tactile presentation surfaces 3a and 3b on opposite sides of the housing of the display unit 2 so that their positions and postures do not change. The memory 22 records the relative position and attitude data of the two reference planes. Based on the relative position and orientation data of the two reference planes stored in the memory 22 and the original display shape data, the surface shape command value is calculated by the arithmetic unit 6.
And sends a command. The other configuration is the same as that of the second embodiment, and the description is omitted.

Next, an example of the device shape of the tactile display according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 9A, the tactile sense presentation surfaces 3a and 3b are arranged obliquely with respect to the fixed surface 18. This method is not suitable for the presentation in a state where a jar or the like is standing, but it can be touched with a feeling of being wrapped in both hands in a state of being laid down.

FIG. 9 (b) is a modification of FIG. 9 (a). The tactile sensation providing surface 3 is a curved surface, and pins (not shown) are arranged in the normal direction of the surface. In this case as well, it is not suitable for presentation in a standing state such as a jar, but it can be touched as if wrapped with both hands in a lying state.

FIG. 9C shows a configuration in which the display unit 2 shown in FIG. 8 is cylindrical and two tactile presentation surfaces 3a and 3b are arranged. This method is not suitable for presentation in a state where a pot or the like is laid down, but can be touched with a feeling of being wrapped in both hands in a standing state.

[0035]

As described above, according to the tactile display of the present invention, by presenting tactile information in two or more directions, tactile sensation in the form of being wrapped with both hands can be achieved, and a sense of three-dimensionality and volume can be obtained. It is possible to transmit information with higher bodily sensation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a tactile display according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state of a plurality of pins arranged on display units 2a and 2b of the tactile display according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating display units 2a and 2b of the tactile display according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the display units 2a and 2b of the tactile display according to the first embodiment of the present invention, taken along a plane parallel to the xy plane of the coordinate system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the height target value from the reference surface of the pin 10 to be shown.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the display unit moving actuator in the tactile display according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a tactile display according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a receiver and a reference plane in a tactile display according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a tactile display according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of the device shape of the tactile display of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tactile display device main body 2, 2a, 2b Display part 3, 3a, 3b Tactile presentation surface 4, 4a, 4b Display part moving actuator 5, 5a, 5b Moving body 6 Computing unit 7, 7a, 7b Actuator control circuit 8, 8a, 8b Sensor signal processing circuit 10 Pin 11, 11a, 11b, 11c Pin drive circuit 12 Drive circuit controller 13 Memory 14 Cap 15 Frame 16, 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d Target height value of a certain pin from the reference plane 17, 17a, 17b Multi-degree-of-freedom manipulator 18 Fixed surface 19, 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d Reference surface 20, 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d Receiver 21 Transmitter 22 Memory 23, 23a, 23b, 23c Position sensor 24, 24a, 24b, 24c Motor 25 Roller 26 Gear Oh 27 pin groove

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A haptic display having a reference surface serving as a reference for presenting tactile information, wherein a height and a hardness in a normal direction of the reference surface are changed at least at a plurality of positions on the reference surface. A tactile display, wherein the surface has at least two normal directions. 2. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein: based on the tactile data to be presented and the position and posture data of the reference plane or a target value of the position or posture.
A tactile display further comprising a calculating means for calculating the tactile information to be presented on the reference plane. 3. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the tactile information includes at least one of shape and hardness information. 4. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the tactile presenting means includes a plurality of pins arranged at intervals from each other, and an actuator for driving each of the pins in an axial direction. And a tactile display comprising: 5. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the reference surface is a curved surface. 6. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the reference surface has a plurality of divided surfaces, and the normal directions of the plurality of surfaces are different. A tactile display characterized by being. 7. The tactile display according to claim 6, further comprising a position / posture changing means capable of changing a relative position and a posture of the plurality of surfaces. 8. The tactile display according to claim 6, wherein the tactile information presented on the reference plane is changed according to a change in a relative position and a posture of the plurality of surfaces. 9. The tactile display according to claim 1, wherein a normal direction of the reference plane is substantially perpendicular to a direction of gravity.