Thermal feedback in virtual environments

This work refers to the study of thermal contact phenomena modeling for tactile feedback in virtual environments applications. The results of the modeling aspects for thermal replication are collected in specific functions that are used by the renderer of a virtual application. The finger temperature distribution versus time and contacted object temperature are the fundamental ways to approach, according to a specific modeling technique, the computation of the contact temperature occurring at the interface between the virtual hand and virtual object. Finger-temperature distribution is then used for the control of thermal effecters. The modeling of the spatial and temporal distribution of the temperature in the human finger, when contact occurs with an external object at a defined temperature, is carried out in two phases: (a) determination of the temperature distribution in the finger when no contact is detected; and (b) determination of the temperature distribution in the finger when contact is detected. Results of the modeling are given and a procedure describing how these results can be used in the framework of a real application is presented.