Haptic Data Transmission Based on the Prediction and Compression

In this paper, we present a floating-point compression method using position prediction for haptic data transmission. The main objective of our work is to reduce the size of bandwidth used for haptic data transmission in networked haptic virtual environments, such as remote-teaching or tele-operation, by compressing the size of packets composed of floating-point numbers. In order to compress floating-point numbers, we first analyze the characteristics of floating-point arithmetic and haptic data transmission. Then, we introduce a simple position prediction method for the movement of a haptic cursor (also known as a haptic pointer or haptic probe). Finally, we propose a compression method on the basis of those characteristics and prediction method. We also build an experimental test bed for the evaluation of the proposed method and conclude that our method is effective enough for improving haptic data transmission.