Haptic cues for effective learning in 3D maze navigation

Navigation in 3D virtual environment is a popular task in modern 3D applications. The main information is visual, which leads to an incomplete acknowledgement of the virtual environment, since other senses are impaired, such as touch or hearing. Haptic devices provides kinesthetic information which may improve the navigation capabilities of humans in virtual environments, however 3D haptic applications use intensive low level programming languages. This paper presents a 3D maze haptic navigation based on kinesthetic perception of the walls of the maze, wherein the walls surface have different properties, thus a learning haptic process enables better navigation skills after few trials. Experimental results done with a test users group, is realized with Novint as the haptic device and Panda3D as the haptic rendering system. Results with and without haptic cues indicates a successful learning curve to navigate with haptic cues. The haptic cues used are surface texture, viscosity, elasticity, shape recognition and external force. The results highlight the importance of haptic cues as navigation reference to improve the performance of the users.