Datagloves - Cyberglove

CyberForce® is a force feedback armature that not only conveys realistic grounded forces to the hand and arm but also provides six-degree-of-freedom positional tracking that accurately measures translation and rotation of the hand in three dimensions. CyberForce is an option designed to work with CyberGrasp™, the award-winning, lightweight, force-reflecting exoskeleton that fits over a CyberGlove® and adds resistive force feedback to each finger. CyberForce is produced under license from SensAble  Technologies, Inc.

Using CyberForce together with CyberGrasp, you can literally "hang your hand" on a virtual steering wheel, sense weight and inertia while picking up a "heavy" virtual object, or feel the impenetrable resistance of a simulated wall. CyberForce allows you to intuitively explore and interact with simulated graphical objects via the most natural interface possible – the human hand.

The new wireless CyberGlove II motion capture data glove is fully instrumented with up to 22 high-accuracy joint-angle measurements. It uses proprietary resistive bend-sensing technology to accurately transform hand and finger motions into real-time digital joint-angle data.
•    The 18-sensor data glove features two bend sensors on each finger, four abduction sensors, plus sensors measuring thumb crossover, palm arch, wrist flexion, and wrist abduction.

•    The 22-sensor data glove has three flexion sensors per finger, four abduction sensors, a palm-arch sensor, and sensors to measure wrist flexion and abduction. Each sensor is extremely thin and flexible being virtually undetectable in the lightweight elastic glove.
The CyberGlove motion capture system has been used in a wide variety of real-world applications, including digital prototype evaluation, virtual reality biomechanics, and animation.
Designed for Comfort and Functionality
The CyberGlove II data glove is constructed with stretch fabric for comfort and a mesh palm for ventilation. The 18-sensor motion capture CyberGlove II system includes open fingertips, which allow the user to easily type, write, and grasp objects.

System Components
The basic CyberGlove II data glove includes one motion capture glove, two batteries, a battery charger, and a USB/wireless technology adaptor with drivers.

Many applications require measurement of the position and orientation of the forearm in space. To accomplish this, mounting provisions for InterSense, Polhemus, and Ascension six degrees of freedom (DOF) motion tracking sensors are available for the data glove wristband. Tracking sensors are not included in the basic CyberGlove II system, but are available as an option and supported in VirtualHand software.

The CyberGlove II motion capture glove system has a software programmable switch and LED on the wristband to permit system software developers to provide the CyberGlove II data glove wearer with additional input/output capability.

Accessories
Many applications require measurement of the position and orientation of the forearm in space. To accomplish this, mounting provisions for Polhemus or other 6 DOF (degrees of freedom - x, y, z, yaw, pitch, roll position and orientation) tracking sensors are available for the glove wristband. Tracking sensors are not included in the basic CyberGlove system, but are available as an option and are supported in the VirtualHand® software.

With CyberGrasp you formly “reach into your computer” and grasp computer-generated or tele-manipulated objects.

The CyberGrasp is a lightweight, force-reflecting exoskeleton that fits over a CyberGlove® and adds resistive force feedback to each finger. With the CyberGrasp force feedback system, users are able to feel the size and shape of computer-generated 3D objects in a simulated “virtual world.”

Grasp forces are produced by a network of tendons routed to the fingertips via the exoskeleton. There are five actuators, one for each finger, which can be individually programmed to prevent the user’s fingers from penetrating or crushing a virtual solid object. The high-bandwidth actuators are located in a small actuator module, which can be placed on the desktop. Additionally, since CyberGrasp does not provide grounded forces, the actuator module can also be worn in a GraspPack™ backpack for portable operation, dramatically increasing the effective workspace.

The device exerts grasp forces that are roughly perpendicular to the fingertips throughout the range of motion, and forces can be specified individually. The CyberGrasp system allows full range-of-motion of the hand and does not obstruct the wearer's movements. The device is fully adjustable and designed to fit a wide variety of hands.

Originally developed under STTR contract to the United States Navy for use in telerobotic applications, the CyberGrasp system allows an operator to control a remotely-located robotic "hand" and literally "feel" the object being manipulated.

VirtualHand SDK simplifies simulation for developers in mechanical CAD, R&D or 3D e-commerce to "hand-enable" their applications. The SDK consist of three main components:

1. Device Manager: A multi-platform (W2K, NT, Linux and IRIX) network aware device driver system for CyberGlove, CyberTouch, CyberGrasp, CyberForce as well as the Polhemus Fastrak and Ascension Flock of Birds 6DOF trackers.

2. Device Configuration Utility: A user friendly Windows-like interface to calibrate and configure your gloves, touches, grasps, and 6 dof trackers. Allows you to save configurations and set default settings.

3. Virtual Hand Toolkit: A fully featured C++ develoment library including support for collision detection, hand interaction management and force feedback.

The new suite of tools in the VirtualHand SDK represents a significant departure from the previous versions of VirtualHand in that it:
- Offers an object-oriented model with an accompanying C++ library.Provides a general framework for constructing hand-enabled simulations from scratch or for integrating hand-interaction into existing applications.
- Includes a device configuration utility that lets users calibrate and configure Immersion's CyberGlove products plus supported trackers in an intuitive and graphical manner.
- Offers real-time collision detection capabilities between 3D digital objects.Provides a force feedback interface for CyberGrasp and CyberForce users.
- Offers full network support. A user can run an application on a host computer while getting device data from another machine, permitting interaction with geographically distributed teams.
- Grasping algorithms for picking up any arbitrary object loaded into the scene.
- "Ghost-hand" support for managing position-tracker offsets to prevent the graphical hand from passing through objects.
- A fast polygon-level collision-detection engine, including an open API for support of specialized third-party collision modules.
- An open API for model import and interfacing with third-party visualization software.
A VRML/Cosmo (SGI Optimizer 1.2) implementation is included.Significantly improved overall structure with better run-time integrity and more complete error handling.A complete set of open source demonstration applications showing how each of the toolkit features can be used in your development.

The VirtualHand® SDK is available for a free 30 day trial. The tool kit includes the VirtualHand SDK and VirtualHand Drivers  in a single install program.

VirtualHandStudio is an intuitive software tool used for verifying, testing and evaluating 3D digital models in real-time. It allows for the direct import of 3D data from multiple sources, such as 3D Studio® MAX and OpenFlight, to construct functional digital prototypes. The user can directly interact with these prototypes using either a standard mouse or more sophisticated 3D input devices, including Immersion's entire line of interactive products.

Both Software packages need the system requirements Windows 2000 SP2 and Visual Studio 6.0 SP5.

CyberTouch™ is a tactile feedback option for Immersion's popular CyberGlove instrumented glove.
It features small vibrotactile stimulators on each finger and the palm of the CyberGlove. Each stimulator can be individually programmed to vary the strength of touch sensation. The array of stimulators can generate simple sensations such as pulses or sustained vibration, and they can be used in combination to produce complex tactile feedback patterns. Software developers can design their own actuation profiles.
The CyberTouch tactile feedback option is essential  to anyone serious about using their hands to interact with objects in a virtual world.