The SpaceCat and the quCat were developed together with ergonomics
experts from the Institute of Hygiene and Applied Physiology at the
Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. |
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Ergonomics
The inductive spring technolgy (IS3D) allows for man-machine
interaction in six degrees of freedom (6DOF). It may be embedded in any computer
application providing 3D visualization.
IS3D allows for
direct, precise and fast control of the virtual object, with
features such as:
- a large range of motion that has been adapted to the hand's
movement
- the elastic suspension provides a rich sensory
feed-back allowing both fast and precise manipulation
- its range of motion and spring suspension has been adapted to
support both position and rate control.
The support of both position and rate control allows the user
to either manipulate virtual objects (i.e. for actions like pan, zoom
and rotate in a CAD-System) or navigate through virtual worlds (moving
an eyepoint/viewpoint in walk through/fly through applications). The
rate control is suitable for navigation and coarse manipulation.
However, for precise manipulation, the position control is
advantageous. This opens up a range of new possibilities in
applications such as in medicine and animation. Moving the handle of
an IS3D device in any way, i.e. a combined translation and rotation
lets the object on the screen follow the movement one to one.
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