Adaptive haptic framework

Research work that has been performed in the area of haptics have surely produced some remarkable results; there is a good variety of haptic devices that possess the potential to offer users a rich experience in a virtual reality setting. However, users always face difficulties in operating in such environments. Without doubt the need of users having to ´adjust to´ operating haptic devices is an inconvenience. Nevertheless the lack of a uniform controlling mechanism able to use fully the abilities of haptic devices according to each user´s personal attributes and needs is the main hurdle that must be overtaken. To bring about such architecture is an inspiring adventure that presents some challenges, but in turn, is immensely rewarding. The architecture that we are proposing is a layer based approach to overcome the lack of a uniform controlling mechanism that makes full use of the functionalities of haptic devices according to each user´s personal needs. This framework is integrated with a behavioral data container, which defines the personalized information of the users. The latter is our context-aware, or intelligent component that dictates what device to use and how, according to the user´s data that has already been collected and analyzed. This intelligent component takes the decisions and directs the user to the appropriate environment. With the relevant software and hardware, it is possible to offer to the user optimum experience of a haptic-induced virtual world.