Extracting Tactile Sensation Information from Multi-illuminated Images of Tangible Cultural Property

In recent years, haptic devices have been developed to give users the sensation of physically touching virtual objects. However, these studies have focused mainly on developing haptic hardware, and algorithms for synthesizing the tactile sensation signals have not been well studied. In this paper, a technique is proposed for synthesizing tactile vibrational signals based on the ability to measure surface structure by the use of multiple photographic images taken at different illumination angles. The vibrational signal of the tactile device is synthesized using natural noise. The virtual reality system consists of a 3D visual display, a force feedback device and a vibration tactile sensation device.