2024-07-27 01:04:53
Researchers have developed the Haptic Codecs for Tactile Internet (HCTI) standard, which allows haptic information to be transmitted bidirectionally over a network in data packets that are not too large and do not require high bandwidth. They detailed it on June 14th. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Associations in a published document.
Currently, transmitting tactile feedback over a distance—for example, controlling a robot arm in situ—requires data packets to be sent back and forth 4,000 times per second. Although this allows for realistic feedback and reliable data transmission, it places very high demands on the network that transmits the data packets, says the lead author of the article Eckehard Steinbach, professor of media technology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
To overcome this, the HCTI standard uses compression and reduces this clock rate to 100 cycles per second – which Steinbach says is “close to the threshold of human perception”.
The HCTI standard optimizes the control loop between the sender and the receiver, and compresses the information in a similar way to sending audio or video files over the Internet – only in a two-way format.
“The new codec is something like JPEG or MPEG, only for haptics,” Steinback says. -“In the case of JPEG, MP3 and MPEG, many applications have emerged since the standards were made public. I expect the same from our new haptic codecs.”
Touch transfer
Codecs compress information sent over the Internet, cutting out data that humans cannot perceive. In JPEG and MP3 files, this means removing visual and audio elements that people are unlikely to notice. This results in a loss of high fidelity in color or high-frequency sounds, but a much smaller data packet is easily transmitted.
However, this process is usually a one-way transfer. Given that effective remote haptic feedback requires two-way communication and high accuracy, high bandwidth and low latency are required. This isn’t much of a problem when controlling robots locally, but when controlling them remotely, it becomes a challenge.
Although fiber-optic networks send information at the speed of light, it still travels no more than 300 kilometers in one millisecond (ms). In terms of net transfer time, this means it would take 30ms for a packet of haptic data to travel from Germany to Japan – not counting any transmission delays caused by the receiving device. This is not fast enough to provide effective remote tactile feedback, the researchers report.
However, by compressing the size of data packets while still transmitting enough information to make haptics effective, haptic feedback can be transmitted without human-perceptible delay. The only drawback, the researchers added, is that the forces applied by the robot are slightly damped when transmitted back to the controller, meaning that, for example, hard surfaces can appear softer.
The researchers said that the HCTI standard could be applied in various fields in the future, especially in medicine. In particular, it could be used in telesurgery, where a robot in the operating room could be controlled remotely by an expert surgeon on another continent. A doctor could also remotely perform an ultrasound examination of a patient in an ambulance, speeding up the process of providing care.
Sensory feedback could also improve the gaming and entertainment experience, as the feedback would be more realistic when playing online or in so-called “4D cinemas”. For example, it could convey the physical sensation of two players shaking hands. It could also be applied to the best virtual and augmented reality devices for better engagement, according to Live Science.
2024-07-27 01:04:53