10:10AM Effectiveness of Vibro-tactile feedback to cue a stepping response to discrete balance challenge [#6039]
Francois Asseman, Adolfo M Bronstein and Michael A Gresty3 10:10AM Effectiveness of Vibro-tactile feedback to cue a stepping response to discrete balance challenge
Francois Asseman, Adolfo M Bronstein and Michael A Gresty, Imperial College London, United KingdomAsseman, Francois

Our purpose was to evaluate vibro-tactile feedback in cueing the ecologically manoeuvre of making a 'saving' step response to movement of the support surface. Sudden movements of the platform were used to produce perturbations that would provoke a stepping response. Results are contradictory. Whereas elderly subject with slower reaction times improved their reaction with the vibrotactile feedback patients with slowness showed no improvement. We speculate that the mode of action of such a prosthesis is not to improve sensory feedback detection but to facilitate high level decisional process. It is likely that in order to obtain the time lead necessary for sensory substitution one would have to develop a means of predicting a balance threat.

10:30AM A 3D Annotation Interface Using the DIVINE Visual Display [#6028]
Osman Karim, Malric Francois and Shervin Shirmohammadi3 10:30AM A 3D Annotation Interface Using the DIVINE Visual Display
Osman Karim, Malric Francois and Shervin Shirmohammadi, University of Ottawa, CanadaKarim, Osman

While systems such as CAVEs have been experimented with and used for a number of years, their deployment has been slow mainly due to their expense and space requirements. As such, researchers have been moving towards smaller and cheaper immersive systems. In this paper, we introduce an immersive interface for manipulating 3D objects using the DIVINE system.

10:50AM A Pressure Sensitive Home Environment [#6037]
Megan Howell Jones, Amaya Arcelus, Rafik Goubran and Frank Knoefel3 10:50AM A Pressure Sensitive Home Environment
Megan Howell Jones, Amaya Arcelus, Rafik Goubran and Frank Knoefel, Carleton University, Canada; SCO Health,Elisabeth-Bruyere Research Institute, CanadaHowell Jones, Megan

Homes could be equipped with unobtrusive pressure sensors to monitor older adults. This paper deals with the processing, analysis and communication of pressure sensor outputs that would enable such monitoring. An example is shown of an adult of 63 years who slept over top of a pressure sensor array. Her nocturnal respiratory rate was monitored via the pressure sensor array. Additionally, her bed time, rise time, and out-of-bed times were accurately recorded using the methods proposed herein. This information was presented through a secure web interface, which would allow a caregiver simple and intuitive access to client data.

11:10AM Multi-Modal Interface for A Real-Time CFD Solver [#6026]
Maryia Kasakevich, Pierre Boulanger, Walter Bischof and Manuel Garcia3 11:10AM Multi-Modal Interface for A Real-Time CFD Solver
Maryia Kasakevich, Pierre Boulanger, Walter Bischof and Manuel Garcia, University of Alberta, Canada; EAFIT University, ColombiaKasakevich, Maryia

Advances in computer processing power and networking have brought significant changes to simulation of complex phenomena. In certain cases, it is even possible to alter parameters of a computation whilst it is running, depending on what the scientist perceives in the current visual output. This ability to monitor and change parameters of the computational process is called computational steering. In this paper, we present an advanced multi- modal interface where sonification and 3D visualization are used in a computational steering environment specialized to solve real-time Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) problems. More specifically, this paper describes how sonification of CFD data can be used to augment 3D visualization.

11:30AM Hapto-Audio-Visual Environments for Collaborative Training of Ophthalmic Surgery Over Optical Network [#6023]
Pierre Boulanger, Guo Wu, Bischof Walter and Yang Xing Dong3 11:30AM Hapto-Audio-Visual Environments for Collaborative Training of Ophthalmic Surgery Over Optical Network
Pierre Boulanger, Guo Wu, Bischof Walter and Yang Xing Dong, University of Alberta, CanadaBoulanger, Pierre

This paper presents the results of a two-year project to develop a shared hapto- visual-audio-virtual environment (HAVE) for collaborative medical research and training in ophthalmology. One of the goals of this project is to create a collaborative training environment, in which residents can remotely learn, in real-time, cataract operations from real operations performed by teaching surgeons. The assumption of this work is that a trainee surgeon can learn the complex hand-eye coordination necessary for becoming a good ophthalmic surgeon by feeling and seeing every move the expert surgeon makes, through a complex haptic, auditory, and visual playback interface. Experimental results are presented.

11:50AM Non-Situated Vibrotactile Force Feedback and Laparoscopy Performance [#6036]
Hao Xin, Catherine Burns and John S. Zelek3 11:50AM Non-Situated Vibrotactile Force Feedback and Laparoscopy Performance
Hao Xin, Catherine Burns and John S. Zelek, University of Waterloo, CanadaXin, Hao

Sensory substitution cues have shown to enable force feedback in laparoscopic surgery. However, the sensory cues have been mostly visual, while tactile cues are largely ignored in the context of laparoscopic surgery. Vibrotactile force feedback cues implemented using pancake motors activated at predetermined force levels is tested in this study. Preliminary results show that tactile cues could potentially reduce the incidences of excessive use of force compared to providing visual or visual and tactile cues. However further study is needed to assess the effectiveness of tactile cues.

1:10PM Finger Inverse Kinematics Using Error Model Analysis for Gesture Enabled Navigation in Virtual Environments [#6012]
Ayman El-Sawah, Nicolas D. Georganas and Emil M. Petriu3 1:10PM Finger Inverse Kinematics Using Error Model Analysis for Gesture Enabled Navigation in Virtual Environments
Ayman El-Sawah, Nicolas D. Georganas and Emil M. Petriu, DISCOVER LAB - U of Ottawa, Canada; DISCOVER Lab - University of Ottawa, CanadaEl-Sawah, Ayman

In this paper we provide a new method for solving the hand fingers inverse kinematics problem. Given the finger's end-effector position with respect to the finger's Metacarpal joint, the finger's four degrees-of-freedom joint angles are uniquely solved directly without iterations. The solution of a closely related, simpler inverse kinematics problem is used as a rough estimate of the finger's MCP and Abduction angles. The error model of the estimate is used to correct the prediction. The error analysis is done a priori and is used directly in real-time. The method provides accurate results and is computationally efficient.

1:30PM Enabling mobile haptic design: Piezoelectric actuator technology properties in hand held devices [#6020]
Pauli Laitinen and Jani Maenpaa3 1:30PM Enabling mobile haptic design: Piezoelectric actuator technology properties in hand held devices
Pauli Laitinen and Jani Maenpaa, Nokia Research Center, FinlandLaitinen, Pauli

Mobile haptics and multimodal design has been strongly constrained by the lack of enabling actuator technologies. In this paper property of the piezoelectric actuator technology for haptic feedback in mobile devices is described. By the careful actuator design and its integration to mobile devices this technology provides realistic possibility for haptic and multimodal design with considerable latitude. Characteristics of mobile device usage are described and their impact to haptic design is discussed.

1:50PM Precise Positioning in a Telepresent Microassembly System [#6017]
Micheal F. Zaeh and Andrea Reiter3 1:50PM Precise Positioning in a Telepresent Microassembly System
Micheal F. Zaeh and Andrea Reiter, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany; Technical University Munich, iwb, GermanyZaeh, Micheal F.

The implementation of telepresence technology brings promising advantages for numerous technical systems. In the field of manual microassembly, where low batches are still handmade with microscopes and tweezers it offers ergonomic improvements and new production scenarios, since the worker is separated from the production environment and only connected via networks. Although this is very useful it also provides a thread in that the employed network could introduce delays into the system. Such delays negatively affect the precision of micro production. This research aims to show the extent to which delays can influence tasks which involve precision in a real microassembly setup and scenario.

2:10PM A Cloth Design System Using Haptic Device and Its Collaborative Environment [#6027]
Katsunori Miyahara, Yoshihiro Okada and Koichi Niijima3 2:10PM A Cloth Design System Using Haptic Device and Its Collaborative Environment
Katsunori Miyahara, Yoshihiro Okada and Koichi Niijima, Department of Informatics, Kyushu University, JapanMiyahara, Katsunori

This paper proposes a cloth design system that provides intuitive operations, e.g., sewing, cutting and fitting a cloth in a virtual 3D space through direct manipulations using a force-feedback device. This cloth design system also provides a collaborative environment that allows two users to design a common cloth collaboratively in a virtual 3D space through the Internet. A lot of cloth simulation algorithms and systems have been proposed and existed so far. However, there is no cloth design system that supports a force-feedback device and provides a networked-collaborative environment. So, the authors developed such a cloth design system.

2:30PM Vibrotactile perception: Differential effects of frequency, amplitude, and acceleration [#6014]
Helena Pongrac3 2:30PM Vibrotactile perception: Differential effects of frequency, amplitude, and acceleration
Helena Pongrac, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, GermanyPongrac, Helena

In telemanipulation tasks vibrations occurring in the remote environment are fed back through tactile displays. Two experiments concerning the perception of vibrations were conducted. The first experiment aims at determining whether vibrations are coded primarily by frequency, amplitude, or acceleration by human subjects. Results show that primarily frequency and amplitude of the vibrations were perceived. In the second experiment, subjects' just noticeable difference (JND) for frequency under different conditions was examined. The resulting JND of 18% for frequencies remained constant for all conditions. Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the subjective intensity for vibrations for each human operator when designing tactile displays.

3:10PM GJK for Deformable Object Collision Detection [#6015]
Maher Hatab and Abderrahmane Kheddar3 3:10PM GJK for Deformable Object Collision Detection
Maher Hatab and Abderrahmane Kheddar, Universite d'Evry, France; JRL CNRS, JapanHatab, Maher

GJK is one of the main methods for distance calculations between convex objects. In this article, the adaptation of GJK for deformable object collision detection is proposed. Although the original method is only suited for distance calculations, the proposed method is capable of finding the colliding triangle pairs between two continuously deforming virtual objects in real time. Furthermore, it handles all deformation types at no extra time cost and it allows the client application to add, or remove triangles from the considered object meshes at run time with no extra overhead for the collision detection. The proposed method is very flexible in many aspects, making it an ideal choice for virtual reality and haptic applications.

3:30PM .NET API Wrapping for Existing C++ Haptic APIs [#6022]
Zouhair Mahboubi and Stella Clarke3 3:30PM .NET API Wrapping for Existing C++ Haptic APIs
Zouhair Mahboubi and Stella Clarke, McGill University, Canada; Technische Universitaet Muenchen, GermanyMahboubi, Zouhair

This paper presents a set of guidelines for a design architecture that would allow migrating an existing C++ API to the .NET Framework without having to rewrite it from scratch. The presented architecture was implemented by wrapping the Sensable Ghost SDK 3.0. The resulting .NET API was then used in both software and hardware based scenarios.

3:50PM A Novel Method for Supporting Massively Multi-user Virtual Environments [#6033]
Dewan Ahmed, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Jauvane Oliveira3 3:50PM A Novel Method for Supporting Massively Multi-user Virtual Environments
Dewan Ahmed, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Jauvane Oliveira, University of Ottawa, Canada; National Laboratory for Scientific Computing, BrazilAhmed, Dewan

In collaborative distributed virtual environment people interact with each other to shard their states. In this paper we present massively multi-user virtual simulation architecture - MM-VISA. The framework partitions the simulation platform into multiple regions to properly organize the decorative entities and to efficiently manage their association. The coordinator manages local communications in multicast fashion but this multicast functionality is shifted from the network layer to the application layer to get the benefit of the scalability and easy deploy-ability. Considering the behavior of the entities, coordinator opens multiple multicast channels to reduce structural reformation events among the entities.

4:10PM An Efficient Hybrid Multicast Transport Protocol for Collaborative Virtual Environment with Networked Haptic [#6040]
Azzedine Boukerche and Haifa Raja Maamar3 4:10PM An Efficient Hybrid Multicast Transport Protocol for Collaborative Virtual Environment with Networked Haptic
Azzedine Boukerche and Haifa Raja Maamar, SITE, University of Ottawa, CanadaBoukerche, Azzedine

Several techniques for Collaborative Virtual Environments CVE, Haptic, Audio and Visual Environments C-HAVE were designed. In this paper, we focus upon applications that are based on closely coupled and highly synchronized haptic tasks that require coordination among the participants. Four main protocols were designed to resolve the synchronization issues: SCTP, SRTP, RMTP and SRM. While these four protocols have shown good performance for CVE applications, none of these protocols was able to meet all the of the basic CVE requirement: scalability,reliability, synchronization and minimum delay. In this paper, we present a hybrid protocol that is able to satisfy all the CVE and C-HAVE requirements and discuss its implementation.

4:30PM Towards a Standard Modeling of Haptic Software System [#6032]
Atif Alamri, Mohamad Eid and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik3 4:30PM Towards a Standard Modeling of Haptic Software System
Atif Alamri, Mohamad Eid and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, University of Ottawa, CanadaAlamri, Atif

Computer haptics refers to the discipline concerned with generating and rendering haptic stimuli to the human user. The last decade has witnessed a rapid progress in haptic applications software development. We envision a need for a standard for haptic application software modeling. This paper introduces the approach of the Unified Modeling Language based haptic software engineering. We present the rationale and a reference model for haptic software development, and propose the basic modeling technique that comprises modeling elements, notation, and methods for haptic software systems.

9:00AM Dark Matter Method for Correct Augmented Reality Occlusion Relationships [#6035]
Mark Fiala3 9:00AM Dark Matter Method for Correct Augmented Reality Occlusion Relationships
Mark Fiala, National Research Council, CanadaFiala, Mark

In Augmented Reality (AR), virtual objects are rendered to appear to co-exist with a real scene and real objects. Usually augmentations are simply drawn over top of the camera image, which does not work for cases where the virtual object should be partially or completely occluded by real objects in the scene. A solution is proposed where a virtual object that approximates the shape of the real object provides the correct occlusion relationship but is not drawn to the output image, an approach useful to both real time AR and off-line movie effects. This "dark matter" method is used in a "magic mirror" AR system.

9:20AM 3D Input Using Hand-held Objects and Computer Vision [#6031]
Mark Fiala3 9:20AM 3D Input Using Hand-held Objects and Computer Vision
Mark Fiala, National Research Council, CanadaFiala, Mark

An untethered hand-held object whose pose can be determined automatically is useful for human-computer interaction (HCI) applications such as gaming and Augmented Reality (AR). Computer vision and fiducial marker systems can be employed to turn ergonomic objects such as rubber balls, toy swords and guns, balloons, etc into low cost input devices. A digital video camera such as a consumer webcam is all that is needed to allow the 3D pose of a naturally held object to be used as input to control a CAD system, game, or other GUI interface. Markers are placed on the object whose positions are learned by the system automatically and used to determine object pose in a real time system.

9:40AM Recognizing emotions on static and animated avatar faces [#6009]
Sylvie Noel, Sarah Dumoulin, Thomas Whalen and John Stewart3 9:40AM Recognizing emotions on static and animated avatar faces
Sylvie Noel, Sarah Dumoulin, Thomas Whalen and John Stewart, Communications Research Centre, CanadaNoel, Sylvie

People were asked to identify the emotion on a static or animated avatar face. In the first study, happiness, sadness, and surprise were all recognized at high rates, while anger and disgust were not. The static neutral face was not well recognized but its animated version was identified more often. In a second study, small changes made to "tweak" the neutral and angry faces were only partially successful. About half the people recognized the static angry face; the neutral face was not recognized in either version. More surprisingly, the recognition rates for happiness, sadness and surprise dropped significantly. These results suggest that people are sensitive to small, seemingly innocuous changes in the presentation of avatar faces.

10:00AM A Distributed, Collaborative, and Haptic-Enabled Eye Cataract Surgery Application with a User Interface on Desktop, Stereo Desktop, and Immersive Displays [#6024]
Abdelwahab Hamam, Saeid Nourian, Naim El-Far, Francois Malric, Xiaojun Shen and Nicolas D. Georganas3 10:00AM A Distributed, Collaborative, and Haptic-Enabled Eye Cataract Surgery Application with a User Interface on Desktop, Stereo Desktop, and Immersive Displays
Abdelwahab Hamam, Saeid Nourian, Naim El-Far, Francois Malric, Xiaojun Shen and Nicolas D. Georganas, DISCOVER Lab - University of Ottawa, CanadaHamam, Abdelwahab

In this paper, we discuss the technologies and approaches utilized in developing a cataract eye surgery simulation that will be used for training novice surgeons. The three different techniques described in this paper, are all hapto-visual techniques that resulted in three different implementations of the application: 2D simulation, 3D immersive simulation, and completely immersive simulation. The paper begins with an introduction and a general overview of the medical procedure of the cataract surgery. Then an overview of the eye and surgical tools modeling is given. Following that, the architecture and technology of each of the three design techniques is given. Finally the paper concludes with future work to improve the application.

10:20AM Compression of Cubic-Panorama Datasets with Spatially Consistent Representation [#6018]
Kehua Jiang and Eric Dubois3 10:20AM Compression of Cubic-Panorama Datasets with Spatially Consistent Representation
Kehua Jiang and Eric Dubois, School of Information Technology and Engineering, CanadaJiang, Kehua

A spatially consistent representation for cubic-panorama datasets is developed. Specific approaches for constructing the reference blocks on the corners of cubes are designed for motion estimation. The spatially consistent representation of cubic panoramas eliminates image boundary constraints for motion vector search. Better matched reference blocks can be obtained to further reduce the prediction errors and improve the compression efficiency. The compression scheme is adapted to the features of cubic-panorama datasets. It is shown that superior coding performance is achieved with the spatially consistent representation compared with the generic representation of cubic- panorama datasets.

11:00AM 3D Model Creation using Self-Identifying Markers and SIFT Keypoints [#6030]
Mark Fiala and Shu Chang3 11:00AM 3D Model Creation using Self-Identifying Markers and SIFT Keypoints
Mark Fiala and Shu Chang, National Research Council, CanadaFiala, Mark

3D object modeling can be accomplished using fiducial markers and/or feature detectors. Fiducial markers provide high reliability of detection, however, it is undesirable to cover an object to be modeled with markers. Feature detectors can find correspondences between images but they cannot always be relied on to be usable for camera localization. A method is shown that uses the strengths of both to automatically create 3D models of object as well as simultaneously calibrating the camera.

11:20AM Interactive Virtual Simulation for Multiple Camera Placement [#6025]
Jeff Williams and Won-Sook Lee3 11:20AM Interactive Virtual Simulation for Multiple Camera Placement
Jeff Williams and Won-Sook Lee, University of Ottawa, CanadaWilliams, Jeff

Camera placement plays an integral role in image-based 3D object reconstruction. Poor camera placement can lead to poor reconstruction if important silhouette or texture details are not captured in one view, if a camera is too close and the object silhouette is clipped, or if a camera is too far to provide a high-resolution capture. Manually adjusting real world cameras to satisfy these criteria is difficult and tedious. An interactive virtual camera positioning utility is presented that helps the reconstructor quickly and easily choose intuitively good positions, with emphasis on preventing clipping and resolution loss by visualizing the camera-set's mutual viewable volume.

11:40AM Recordable Haptic Textures [#6008]
Hari Vasudevan and Manivannan Muniyandi3 11:40AM Recordable Haptic Textures
Hari Vasudevan and Manivannan Muniyandi, Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, India; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United StatesVasudevan, Hari

In this paper we present a method to record the surface texture of real life objects. These textures can subsequently be played back on virtual surfaces. Our method has the advantage that it can record textures using commonly available haptic hardware. We use the 3DOF SensAble PHANToM to record the textures. The algorithm involves creating recordings of the frequency content of a real surface, by exploring it with the PHANToM. We estimate the frequency spectra at two different velocities, and subsequently interpolate between them on a virtual surface. The extent of correlation between real and simulated spectra was estimated and a near exact spectral match was obtained. The simulated texture was played back using the same haptic device.

12:00PM MPEG-7 Description of Haptic Applications Using HAML [#6021]
Mohamad Eid, Atif Alamri and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik3 12:00PM MPEG-7 Description of Haptic Applications Using HAML
Mohamad Eid, Atif Alamri and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, University of Ottawa, CanadaEid, Mohamad

The continuous evolution of computer haptics, as well as the emergence of a wide range of haptic interfaces has recently boosted the haptics domain. Even though efficient tools that support the developer's work exist, little attention is paid to the reuse and compatibility of haptic application constituents. In response to these issues, we propose an XML-based description language, namely Haptic Application Meta Language - HAML. HAML is designed to provide a technology-neutral description of haptic models. It contains ergonomic requirements and specifications for haptic hardware and software interactions.

12:20PM Methodology for efficient perception in exclusively haptic environments [#6019]
Kanav Kahol, Troy McDaniel and Sethuraman Panchanathan3 12:20PM Methodology for efficient perception in exclusively haptic environments
Kanav Kahol, Troy McDaniel and Sethuraman Panchanathan, Arizona State University, United StatesKahol, Kanav

In haptic environments, it is especially demanding to design realistic interaction paradigms and provide global navigational cues. In this paper, we present a methodology that can replace and/or augment realistic haptic environments and is inspired by the psychological basis of haptics. The system employs haptic cueing to convey information about shape, size, texture, and material of the object through user-determined cues. The key conceptual framework that guides this approach is that humans have haptical memory of an object, and sparse data about the object features presented through cues can invoke spatial concepts that reveal the identity of the object.

1:40PM Tactile Sensing by the Sole of the Foot [#6010]
Mel Siegel, Kalamdani Abhinav and Messom Chris3 1:40PM Tactile Sensing by the Sole of the Foot
Mel Siegel, Kalamdani Abhinav and Messom Chris, Carnegie Mellon University, United StatesSiegel, Mel

This paper introduces prototype experimental apparatus to investigate stability in standing, walking and running of humanoid robots using pressure sensing at the foot contact. The preliminary experiments show that the system can provide very good spatial or temporal resolution and these can be traded off each other given the problem at hand, such as the sparsely sampled whole foot during static balancing or the densely sampled impact point of the foot during walking or running. The prototype apparatus, experimental result, and dynamic models of the system will give insight into the nature of balance control.

2:00PM Application of Haptic, Visual and Audio Integration in Astronomy Education [#6011]
Liya Ni, Marek Krzeminski and Kevin Tuer3 2:00PM Application of Haptic, Visual and Audio Integration in Astronomy Education
Liya Ni, Marek Krzeminski and Kevin Tuer, University of Waterloo, Canada; Handshake VR Inc., CanadaNi, Liya

This paper describes a multi-sensory virtual reality application for astronomy education. The application developed in this work allows Grade 6-9 students to learn about the Solar System through the exploration in a virtual environment with visual, audio and haptic feedback. Evaluation by school teachers and students shows that the haptic enabled virtual reality experience makes astronomy education more interesting and interactive, and helps students understand astronomy phenomena.

2:20PM Assisted Piano Pedagogy through 3D Visualization of Piano Playing [#6013]
Javier Mora, Won-Sook Lee, Gilles Comeau, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik3 2:20PM Assisted Piano Pedagogy through 3D Visualization of Piano Playing
Javier Mora, Won-Sook Lee, Gilles Comeau, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, University of Ottawa, CanadaMora, Javier

Having a correct posture at the piano requires a lot of practice to master; however, a visual feedback can help students realize potential problems and adopt a better position when playing the instrument. This paper discusses an innovative application of the techniques used for the 3D visualization of piano performances in any possible view, with the purpose of comparing them to an ideal piano playing. It includes the capture and reconstruction of the 3D motion and posture of a professional piano player so that it may be compared against the posture and movements of students, by overlaying 2D videos of their recital.

2:40PM Hand-writing Rehabilitation in the Haptic Virtual Environment [#6034]
Youn. K. Kim and Yang Xiaoli3 2:40PM Hand-writing Rehabilitation in the Haptic Virtual Environment
Youn. K. Kim and Yang Xiaoli, Purdue University Calumet, United StatesKim, Youn. K.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been applied to many medical fields. Rehabilitation with VR technologies is one of the emerging research directions. In this paper, a rehabilitation exercise - English character hand writing training exercise is described in the haptic virtual environment. The approach can be used to guide user's hand movement on the right track of the predefined trajectory according to the real-time guidance force. A haptic device, PHANTOM Premium 1.0, is used for writing English characters as a virtual pen, and also for giving the user force feedbacks as a guidance tool. The experimental results and performance analysis are also given in the paper.

3:00PM Zone Based Messaging in Collaborative Virtual Environments [#6029]
Dewan Ahmed, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Ihab Kazem3 3:00PM Zone Based Messaging in Collaborative Virtual Environments
Dewan Ahmed, Shervin Shirmohammadi and Ihab Kazem, University of Ottawa, CanadaAhmed, Dewan

Massively multi-user simulation requires synchronous communication among the parties. In this paper, we present a multi-user collaboration architecture that divides the virtual world in multiple adjacent hexagonal regions in order to properly organize the entities and efficiently manage their liaison. An especial node, named hybrid node, be in charge of each hexagonal region and constructs a data distribution tree at the application layer rather at the network layer. Dynamic adjustment of cheek-in and check-out marks reduces frequent connections and disconnections between a hybrid and an ordinary node, and provides resilience to the system.

3:20PM Telepresence Across Delayed Networks: A Combined Prediction and Compression Approach [#6038]
Stella Clarke, Gerhard Schillhuber, Micheal F. Zaeh and Heinz Ulbrich3 3:20PM Telepresence Across Delayed Networks: A Combined Prediction and Compression Approach
Stella Clarke, Gerhard Schillhuber, Micheal F. Zaeh and Heinz Ulbrich, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, GermanyClarke, Stella

The remote nature of telepresence scenarios can be seen as a strongpoint and also as a weakness. Although it enables the remote control of robots in dangerous or inaccessible environments, it necessarily involves some kind of communication mechanism for the transmission of control signals. This communication mechanism necessarily involves adverse network effects such as delay. Three mechanisms aimed at improving the effects of network delay are presented in this paper: (1) Motion prediction to partially compensate for network delays, (2) Force prediction to learn a local force model, thereby reducing dependency on delayed force signals, and (3) Haptic data compression to reduce the required bandwidth of high frequency data.

Abhinav, Kalamdani 10

Ahmed, Dewan 7, 10

Alamri, Atif 8, 9

Arcelus, Amaya 6

Asseman, Francois 5, 8

Bischof, Walter 6

Boukerche, Azzedine 8

Boulanger, Pierre 6

Bronstein, Adolfo M 5

Burns, Catherine 6

Chang, Shu 9

Chris, Messom 10

Clarke, Stella 7, 10

Comeau, Gilles 10

Dubois, Eric 8

Dumoulin, Sarah 8

Eid, Mohamad 8, 9

El Saddik, Abdulmotaleb 8, 9, 10

El-Far, Naim 8

El-Sawah, Ayman 6

Fiala, Mark 8, 9

Francois, Malric 5

Freeman, Genvieve 5

Garcia, Manuel 6

Georganas, Nicolas D. 5, 6, 8

Goubran, Rafik 6

Gresty, Michael A 5

Hamam, Abdelwahab 8

Hatab, Maher 7

Howell Jones, Megan 6

Jiang, Kehua 8

Kahol, Kanav 9

Karim, Osman 5

Kasakevich, Maryia 6

Kazem, Ihab 10

Kheddar, Abderrahmane 7

Kim, Youn. K. 10

Knoefel, Frank 6

Krzeminski, Marek 10

Laitinen, Pauli 6, 10

Lee, Won-Sook 9, 10

Maamar, Haifa Raja 8

Maenpaa, Jani 6

Mahboubi, Zouhair 7

Malric, Francois 8

McDaniel, Troy 9

Messom, Chris 7

Miyahara, Katsunori 7

Mora, Javier 10

Muniyandi, Manivannan 9

Ni, Liya 10

Niijima, Koichi 7

Noel, Sylvie 8

Nourian, Saeid 8

Okada, Yoshihiro 7

Oliveira, Jauvane 7

Panchanathan, Sethuraman 9

Petriu, Emil 5, 6

Pongrac, Helena 7, 9

Reiter, Andrea 7

Schillhuber, Gerhard 10

Shen, Xiaojun 8

Shirmohammadi, Shervin 5, 7, 10

Siegel, Mel 10

Stewart, John 8

Tuer, Kevin 10

Ulbrich, Heinz 10

Vasudevan, Hari 9

Walter, Bischof 6

Whalen, Thomas 8

Williams, Jeff 9

Wu, Guo 6

Xiaoli, Yang 10

Xin, Hao 6

Xing Dong, Yang 6

Zaeh, Micheal F. 7, 10

Zelek, John S. 6