The SmartTool: A system for augmented reality of haptics

Previous research on augmented reality has been mainly focused on augmentation of visual or acoustic information. However, humans can receive information not only through vision and acoustics, but also through haptics. Haptic sensation is very intuitive, and some researchers are focusing on making use of haptics in augmented reality systems. While most previous research on haptics is based on static data, such as that generated from CAD, CT, and so on, these systems have difficulty responding to a changing real environment in real time. In this paper, we propose a new concept for the augmented reality of haptics, the SmartTool. The SmartTool responds to the real environment by using real time sensor(s) and a haptic display. The sensor(s) on the SmartTool measure the real environment then send us that information through haptic sensation. Furthermore, we will describe the prototype system we have developed.