Researchers Bring the Act of Sculpting to the Virtual World
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Date posted: 14/07/2004
Posted by: Site Administration
This story is from the category
Sensors

University at Buffalo's Virtual Reality lab have developed a virtual clay sculpting system to enable users to sculpt a block of clay, or anything else malliable. The resulting product is stored in VR, and can be produced using CAM manufacturing from a digital cutter or similar machine.

The technology utilizes a ModelGlove developed by the researchers to record the force exerted by hand when depressing and shaping a block of clay. This force-feedback information, as well as information on hand position and speed of fingertip motion, is instantaneously transmitted to the virtual reality version of the clay.

Whilst this system does require a physical counterpart to work, this is only the first prototype. A second generation ModelGlove will have sensors on all fingers and on the palm of the hand to give users full finger control of virtual clay. This will enable users to perform complex touch actions -- such as kneading the ball of clay -- in the virtual environment.

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