Effects of Haptic Data Compression on User Performance in Collaborative Haptic Virtual Environment

This paper presents an experimental study on the effects of haptic data compression on user performance in a Collaborative Haptic Virtual Environment (CHVE) using a Fitts' type task. Several compression methods have been implemented, including Position-Based Haptic Data (PBHD) and Position-Force Haptic Data (PFHD), and the Perception Deadband (PD). In this paper, we have also proposed and investigated a velocity-based Position Extrapolation (PE) method to improve the Perception Deadband technique. We have designed and developed a virtual Fitts' type task for this study. Experiments have been conducted using this task to objectively measure user performance in the CHVE, when the compression methods have been applied to the haptic data. Although, our focus has mostly been on the effects of the compression methods on user performance, associate user perception ratings have also been reported in this paper. Results show that subjects did higher errors when PBHD model were in use, compared to PFDB. In addition, the results show that applying PE method improved the subjects' perception rating with a small increase in the task error.