The sense of touch is fundamental during the interaction between humans and their environment
in virtual reality objects are created by computer simulations and they can be experienced
through haptic devices. In this context haptic textures are fundamental for a realistic haptic
perception of virtual objects. This book formalizes the specific artefacts corrupting the
rendering of virtual haptic textures and offers a set of simple conditions to guide haptic
researchers towards artefact-free textures. The conditions identified are also extremely
valuable when designing psychophysical experiments and when analyzing the significance of the
data collected. The Synthesis of Three Dimensional Haptic Textures Geometry Control and
Psychophysics examines the problem of rendering virtual haptic textures with force feedback
devices. The author provides an introduction to the topic of haptic textures that covers the
basics of the physiology of the skin the psychophysics of roughness perception and the
engineering challenges behind haptic textures rendering. The book continues with the
presentation of a novel mathematical framework that characterizes haptic devices texturing
algorithms and their ability to generate realistic haptic textures. Finally two psychophysical
experiments link the perception of roughness with the parameters of the haptic rendering
algorithms. This book formalizes the specific artefacts corrupting the rendering of virtual
haptic textures and offers a set of simple conditions to guide haptic researchers towards
artefact-free textures. The conditions identified are also extremely valuable when designing
psychophysical experiments and when analyzing the significance of the data collected.
