Network latency issue in cooperative shared haptic virtual environment

A cooperative shared haptic virtual environment, where the users can kinesthetically interact and simultaneously feel each other, is beneficial for many VR simulations. A little is known about the influences of the network delay on the quality of haptic and the performance in such environments. This paper has addressed this issue by exploring the haptic sensation and the performance in a tele-handshake cooperative shared haptic system, where network emulator was exploited to simulate the real network cloud. An experiment for different delay settings has been conducted and an objective and subjective evaluation has been described. An objective evaluation of the force feedback and the performance showed that there was no noticeable effect of the delay on the force feedback, but it had a negative impact on the performance. Meanwhile, the subjective evaluation suggested that the quality of haptic sensation deteriorated as the delay increased. Nevertheless, the examined tele-handshake system was able to deliver a high quality of haptic sensation, good performance, and stability for large delays.