Visuo-haptic display using head-mounted projector

This paper proposes a novel visuo-haptic display using a head-mounted projector (HMP) with X'tal Vision optics. Our goal is to develop a device which enables an observer to touch a virtual object just as it is seen. We describe in detail the design of an HMP with X'tal Vision which is very suitable for augmented reality. For instance, the HMP makes the occlusion relationship between the virtual and the real environments nearly correct. Accordingly, the user can observe his/her real hand with the virtual objects. Furthermore, the HMP reduces eye fatigue because of the low inconsistency of accommodation and convergence. Therefore, we applied HMP-model 2 to a visuo-haptic display using a camouflage technique. This technique, called optical camouflage, makes an obstacle object such as a haptic display become translucent. With this method, a user can observe a stereoscopic virtual object with a nearly correct occlusion relationship between the virtual and the real environments and can actually feel the object.