Ungrounded kinesthetic pen for haptic interaction with virtual environments

We proposed a pen-shaped handheld haptic display that provides kinesthetic sensations to the fingers of a user without the use of mechanical linkages. The user's movements are not restricted since the device does not have mechanical linkages, and the user can enjoy haptic interactions with virtual environments. In order to downsize the device, we designed our device on the basis of a hypothesis that kinesthetic sensations on the user's fingers alone are sufficient to represent the sensations of touch. We implemented a prototype device and performed an experiment to confirm the representational ability of our device. We also developed a prototype haptic augmented reality system, using which the user can see and touch a computer graphics object.