Haptic B-spline surface sculpting with a shaped tool of implicit surface

In this paper, we propose a new implicit to B-spline surface haptic interface and present a new haptic sculpting system for B-spline surfaces with a shaped implicit surface probe/tool. In the physical world, people touch or sculpt with their fingers or tools, instead of just manipulating points. A shaped virtual haptic probe/tool helps users to relate the virtual deformation process to their real life experience. Using the PHANToM haptic device, modellers can touch and explore the model with a shaped probe/tool and feel the physically realistic presence of virtual objects. Various basic haptic sculpting tools are developed to facilitate the deformation of B-spline surfaces. The tool-model interaction is surface-object in nature instead of traditional point-object style. This leads to more intuitive virtual sculpting paradigms, which may help introduce new modeling techniques.