WireMan: a portable wire manipulator for touch-rendering of bas-relief virtual surfaces

An haptic interface actuated by parallel wires is under development. Differently from other known wire-based haptic devices, the proposed system explicitly addresses the capability to be tailored on a human body in order to obtain a portable interface, that should be used for achieving haptic perception by visually impaired people. The device is based on a system of three concurrent wires connected to the operator´s finger, obtaining 3D mobility capabilities. The paper shows in particular how this device can be efficiently used in the exploration of bas-relief virtual surfaces in spite of its intrinsic manipulability limits. This capability has been fully confirmed by preliminary 2D tests, whose results are presented and discussed