Influences of Inter-Stream Synchronization Error on Collaborative Work in Haptic and Visual Environments

This paper deals with a haptic media and video transfer system in which users can touch and move a real object located at a remote place by using haptic interface devices while watching video of the object. Making use of the system, the users can do collaborative work in which the users lift and move the object by holding it between the styluses of the haptic interface devices. In the system, we investigate the influences of inter-stream synchronization error between haptic media and video on the media synchronization quality and the easiness of the collaborative work by subjective assessment. Assessment results show that as the synchronization error increases, the media synchronization quality and the easiness of the collaborative work become worse.