Function-based haptic collaboration in X3D

Abstract

We seek to further expand X3D by augmenting it with function-based definitions of geometry, appearance and tangible physical properties. Besides using alone, the introduced nodes can augment and enrich the standard X3D shapes by function-defined geometry, appearance and tangible physical properties. These new virtual objects can be explored haptically with various desktop force-feedback devices. We also propose a general visual and haptic collaborative framework for using it with X3D. We implement it as new pilot versions of BS Collaborate server and BS Contact VRML/X3D viewer. In our collaborative framework, two pipelines---visual and haptic---complement each other to provide a simple and efficient solution to problems requiring collaboration in shared virtual spaces on the web.