Formable object — A new haptic interface for shape rendering

Interacting with 3D-shape objects using bare hands represents a very intuitive way to explore object shapes and offers lots of new opportunities in the field of virtual reality and design. Only a few 3D-shape interfaces are known, but their resolution is rather low and/or they are not actuated. Thus, a new design for an actuated 3D-shape interface with a comparatively high resolution is presented, which can be further extended to cover larger interaction areas. The kinematics of the device is analyzed and a numerical solution for the inverse kinematics is presented. The ability to form predefined shapes is analyzed. The presented interface can display basic shapes like cylinders or spheres, and due to its specific kinematic design, can easily be mounted as end-effector to kinesthetic haptic interfaces.