Hands-On Demonstration of Heterogeneous Haptic Texturing of Mesh Models Based on Image Textures

In this article, we introduce a framework for heterogeneous assignment of multiple haptic textures to mesh objects based on image textures. The framework consists of two applications, i.e., texture assignment and rendering programs. A user-friendly interface of the framework allows to assign and render textured mesh models in four steps. First, the user provides an image texture file to the algorithm that automatically selects perceptually closest haptic texture from the library. Then, the user is offered to texture object faces by stroking over an object surface with a virtual brush. Several haptic textures can be assigned to different object surfaces of a single mesh model. The haptic information for each face is embedded to mesh object and stored in a generic *.ply file. Finally, a textured mesh object is loaded by rendering application.