Modeling and rendering realistic textures from unconstrained tool-surface interactions

Texture gives real objects an important perceptual dimension that is largely missing from virtual haptic interactions due to limitations of standard modeling and rendering approaches. This paper presents a set of methods for creating a haptic texture model from tool-surface interaction data recorded by a human in a natural and unconstrained manner. The recorded high-frequency tool acceleration signal, which varies as a function of normal force and scanning speed, is segmented and modeled as a piecewise autoregressive (AR) model. Each AR model is labeled with the source segment's median force and speed values and stored in a Delaunay triangulation to create a model set for a given texture. We use these texture model sets to render synthetic vibration signals in real time as a user interacts with our TexturePad system, which includes a Wacom tablet and a stylus augmented with a Haptuator. We ran a human-subject study with two sets of ten participants to evaluate the realism of our virtual textures and the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. The results indicated that our virtual textures accurately capture and recreate the roughness of real textures, but other modeling and rendering approaches are required to completely match surface hardness and slipperiness.