Touchable 3D images, developed by the Institute of Industry and Information Technology

Ubiquitous Interaction, the Human Life Technology research department of the Japan Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (IIST), released the "i3Space" system on August 25, 2010, which can give users the feeling of directly touching three-dimensional (3D) images. By wearing a dedicated device on the fingertips, users can feel the 3D image displayed on the display or the feeling of operating it. It is envisioned to be used in surgical simulation, appearance design, game interface, etc.

i3Space recognizes the user's finger movements and controls the sense of touch and force in real time according to the movement, giving the user the sense of touch of the 3D image. IKEN realized i3Space by developing a "real-time VR space generation system", "false touch force interface" and "multi-position tracking system (Multi Position Tracker System)".

Figure 1 Demonstration using the "i3Space" developed by ITRI

The real-time VR space generation system calculates the working force applied to the physical model of the object based on the user's movements and finger positions, and generates the resulting reaction force and 3D image. A series of operations such as responding to the user's movements are all performed in real time.

Figure 2 System structure of “i3Space”

The tactile interface is composed of a tactile element that provides tactile feedback and its control circuit, the tactile controller . The tactile element uses the GyroCubeSensuous developed by IKEN in 2005.

The multi-position tracking system uses multiple cameras around the user to measure the position of the markers worn on the fingertips. The use of multiple cameras enables measurement without blind spots.

Figure 3 Assumed use

IKI will release and demonstrate the technical details of this development at the game developers conference "CEDEC 2010" held at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center from August 31 to September 2, 2010. In the future, in addition to promoting the miniaturization and high functionality of the system, it also plans to carry out development and verification experiments for different purposes together with manufacturers.