Haptics technology in Educational Applications,

a Case Study

Michael Pantelios, Labros Tsiknas, Sotiris Christodoulou, Theodore Papatheodorou HPCLab, Computer Engineering & Informatics Dept., University of Patras, Greece

{pantelio,tsiknas,spc,tsp}@hpclab.ceid.upatras.gr

Abstract

In this paper we study and introduce some ideas of applying Haptics technology in the field of Education. We argue that Haptics technology of virtually touching and feeling objects and forces, enhances the existing methods and procedures of teaching and learning and it is a valuable tool for pupils and students to apprehend certain aspects of knowledge. The effectiveness of Educational applications concerning school age children can be enhanced by the immersion that Haptics technology provides. During the proposed Haptics applications, children are able to experience nature laws, shapes and behaviours, using special input devices, like Gloves, Force-Feedback devices, etc. The objects that appear visually on the screen also exist physically in a virtual way in order to provide the impression that they can be touched and manipulated as if they were real objects. Integrating and using the haptic metaphor in the learning procedure, children better comprehend ideas concerning several subjects of Science, such as the Newtonian laws, space phenomena and mechanics assembly

1. Introduction – Background

In the recent years, education has been influenced by technology evolution in several ways.

Informatics has offered various tools and methodologies that led in applications with visual or acoustical interaction. Picture and motion aided in the apprehension of the Physic World and helped students acquire a better image of certain chapters of Science.

It appears that there is a difficulty in understanding certain aspects of the Physic World because more than vision and hearing is required in order to fully perceive the physic phenomena and the laws that rule them. It is hard for a teacher to efficiently explain the fact that different planets have different gravity fields where different forces are applied on the objects or the Solar bodies that surround them. It is not easy, at least in our days, to leave the Earth and travel in the Solar system! Moreover, it is also very time consuming and expensive to bring students in front of certain mechanical constructions, like watermills and devices like differential gears, and allow them to study their function [2].

1.1 Learning procedures

Throughout history, Education has evolved and new teaching methods have been acquired in order to improve the learning procedures. It has never been a static field but always tries to adapt the current cultural and technological status, and the intellectual requirements of society. One of the most important questions has always been how to make students participate in the learning procedures. Actually there are two ways of participating in the Learning Procedure, the Passive way and the Active way [1].

The Passive way of learning procedure is to obtain knowledge without interacting with the media that offers it. One such way is by reading books, where the student accepts the knowledge but has limited ways to test if he has fully perceived it. In the Passive way students read / listen / view but do not experience, and that leads to a low level of perception for part of the Physic World. Moreover, most of us have noticed the decreased interest and enthusiasm that most of participants have during the above procedure.

The Active way of learning procedure is to gain knowledge by participating, investigating the physical scene and manipulating its elements. One of the first active ways of Learning Procedure has been the experiments performed at school, providing students with the ability to acquire practical knowledge that plays a great deal in cognition of science. In the last years several multimedia and on-line applications have been released allowing children to study Scientific issues. There are commercial applications concerning Physics and Chemistry, containing images, sounds, videos and animations that describe several phenomena and allow children to participate, interact and play with the content while gaining knowledge. In the Active way of learning, students experience the principles that rule nature in a more focused way and it becomes apparent almost instantly whether they have understood the theory that describes the Physic world correctly or erroneously.

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1.2 Haptics Technology

Haptics involves the modality of touch and the sensation of shape and texture the user feels when virtually 'touching' an object. It is related and connected to Force feedback, which is the sense of force effects to the user hand and to Tactile feedback that is the sense of contours and surfaces on part of the hand (usually on fingertips).

Haptic Applications allow people to interact with the sense of touch, along with visual and acoustic representations of objects and scenes. A Haptic Application requires a Haptic Interface Device through which the user interacts with the application.

Haptic Interfaces, being developed as commercial devices, include:

• Force-feedback Joysticks The first commercial products with some elementary application of Haptics are the Force-Feedback Joysticks that provide the user with the sense of force effects (basically “shaking”) while playing, known as force feedback. Logitech (Figure 1)[5] and Microsoft [4] have already produced such devices that come in prices proper for home usage and are games-oriented. They enhance the experience of playing video games by applying forces and vibrations on the user’s hand, providing feedback from the game-application depending on its kind. E.g. by pressing a gun’s trigger in a First Person Shooter game, the user feels the vibrations coming from the gun’s firing. Working with the certain APIs one can build other than game applications that take advantage of these devices’ capabilities.

Figure 1: Logitech’s Force 3D

• Immersion Family Products [6]

Immersion has developed a series of glove-like products such as the Cyberglove, Cybertouch, CyberGrasp or CyberForce providing Haptic interaction in applications. e.g. CyberGrasp™ (Figure2) is an innovative force feedback system for your fingers and hand. It lets you "reach into your computer" and grasp computer-generated or tele-manipulated objects. It is a lightweight, force-reflecting exoskeleton that adds resistive force feedback to each finger. 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

Figure 2 : Immersion's CyberGrasp

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• Sensable Phantom Family Products[7]

Sensable has released the Phantom Family Haptic Devices that are ground-based interfaces used for Haptic interaction (Figure 3). The are mainly comprised of a ground based servomotor that is connected to three continuous arms that can be manipulated by the user’s hand. The devices have 6DOF (degrees of freedom) and a suitable for research usage because of their high fidelity and accuracy.

Figure 3 : Phantom Desktop

Current Haptic Applications / products / systems are used in: • Medical Science

Applications in this area mainly are simulators that recreate realistic medical procedures. These simulators allow healthcare providers to practice procedures in an environment that poses no immediate risks to patients. Such applications are provided by companies such as Novint Technologies [13], which has developed the Virtual Reality Dental System and the Medical Imaging, and Immersion [6] with products such as CathSim Vascular Access Simulator, AccuTouch Endoscopy Simulator and AccuTouch Endovascular Simulator.

• Geoscience In petroleum exploration, developing accurate models of the subsurface environment is a complex and challenging problem. Using existing 2 dimensional mouse-and-keyboard interaction devices to work with 3 dimensional data can be slow and cumbersome. Novint [13] has developed customized software, such as VoxelNotePad and TouchStone that makes it possible to work in 3D with 3D data, by adding haptic feedback and providing real time, 3D interaction to existing visualization techniques.

• Mechanical Simulation Some haptic applications are developed for the simulation of mechanical parts or several other systems (e.g. landing gear system of planes) aiming at the control and testing of the system operation before the production of the prototype. Boeing Co. has experimentally developed some haptic applications with the Phantom haptic 3D interface.

• 3D modeling Haptics technologies offer a new way of creation and manipulation of 3D objects. Several modeling systems were developed to facilitate the digital fabrication of any type of model from shoes to toys, classical fine arts sculptures to industrial product designs. Examples of such systems comprise Freeform modelling system by Sensable [7] and Virtual Hand Studio (see fig.5) by Immersion [6].

• Entertainment - Games The first commercial products with some elementary application of Haptics are the Force-Feedback Joysticks that provide the user with the sense of force effects while playing, known as force feedback. Logitech [5] and Microsoft [4] already have produced such devices that provide users more realistic interactivity with the games that support them.

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• Education In the Education field the sense of touch and force-feedback can offer great improvements to the existing teaching methods, thus enhancing the quality of education procedures. Haptics Educational Applications are an under development research field and some non-commercial applications have been developed for the above haptic interfaces. In our research and study, the applications and the device are oriented to each other and both to educational purposes.

2. Applying Haptics in Education – MUVII project

2.1 Introduction High Performance Information Systems Laboratory (HPCLAB) [10] specializes in Hypermedia &

multimedia environments. Research includes hypermedia frameworks and tools, digital libraries and information repositories, content modeling and metadata, applications in Culture, computer assisted and distance education, 3D/VR systems and user interfaces, intranets and networking infrastructure, digitization, information systems' and networks' security, intellectual property rights, smart card systems, quality evaluation methods and benchmarking.

HPCLAB is participating in the Multi User Virtual Interactive Interface (MUVII) [11] project that aims at developing an Immersive Theater Demonstrator (ITD) and an Interactive Kiosk Demonstrator (IKD). The IKD requires the development of a prototype Haptic device (H3DI – Haptic 3D Interface) and certain applications for educational purposes. This project offers the opportunity to study the Haptic technology and its appliances in new ways of learning and teaching.

The Partners cooperating in MUVII project are presented in the following table alongside with their roles.

MUVII Cooperating partner Role Laval Mayenne Technopole, France [15] Technical and Financial Management Commisariat a l’energie Atomique, France [12] Design and construction of H3DI device for ITD

and IKD HPCLAB ,SEC - University of Patras, Greece [10] IKD applications development SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Norway [16] 3D Graphics Computouch, Norway [19] Tactile motors De Pinxi, Belgium [17] ITD integration and application Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany [18] 3D Sound System Ondim , France [14] IKD software integration Centre PIC, Russia [20] Content for the ITD

2.2 IKD H3DI – Prototype

An H3DI – Prototype has been developed by CEA [12]. It is composed by two 3-DOF robots attached to the hand allowing finger movements without restriction (except closing movements are limited to ~20mm aperture due to tactile motors). The Force feedback on each finger is 5N in all directions and the device’s size is adjustable to hands of various sizes.

Figures 4 – 5 : IKD H3DI concept and realisation respectively

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Attached on the index and thumb fingers are two tactile motors, whose function is to allow the user

feel the surface contours and textures. Developed by Computouch [19], each one of them weighs 15gr, has a 20mm diameter and is15mm high. The integration on the H3DI allows a good force feedback on finger while keeping fingertip free for tactile feedback. Figures 6-7: Tactile Motors

Based on the technical characteristics of IKD H3DI and some of the most known commercial and research-related Haptic Devices [6], [8], [9], [11] we have derived the following table. It provides with a specific as well as an overall picture of IKD H3DI’s potential and capabilities.

Table 1: Haptic devices comparison

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2.3 Interactive Kiosk Demonstrator Applications Analysis

HPCLAB is responsible for the applications development. At the initial stage of this process we performed a step-by-step analysis of the User Requirement Specifications. The 1st step of this procedure was the analysis of the Haptics Application Domain which brought us to the conclusion that Haptic Interfaces seem appropriate for educational applications like: a) Giving users the feel of phenomena at nano, macro or astronomical scales, b) “what if” scenarios for non-terrestrial physics c) Manipulating mechanical components of an assembly in an immersive environment d) Cooperation between students and teachers.

The 2nd step was to define the Educational Applications incorporating Haptic Interaction. Along with the Science and Education Centre at University of Patras we came to the conclusion that Newton’s 3 laws on mechanics (plus the 4th one on gravity) are simple enough to express in terms of mathematics but research shows that a small percentage of students fully appreciate the real meaning of these laws (as opposed to simple memorising them). [3] Furthermore, it was discovered that even for those students who had successfully finished a 12-year schooling (including physics), a large percentage of those reverted to a pre-Newtonian description of the physical world. Much has been done to describe how and why this occurs but precious little has been done to try and discover methods and means to help students surpass their difficulty. From a constructivist point of view what is really needed is a chance for them to experience the effect of simple mechanics, and thereby allow them to gradually (but steadily) alter their preconceived ideas to the correct ones in a way that these will remain steady over time. The 3DHI allows the user to feel the force-feedback of throwing an object, in much the same way as we feel the force- feedback while throwing a base-ball or a cricket-ball or even a stone. The difference here is that we can experience the effects in a friction-free environment and that we are allowed to exercise forces of superhuman proportions: our user has become a superman in order to learn. Thus the applications focus on The Newtonian Physics & The Solar System and Simple mechanics related to gears.

The 3rd step was to extract the User Requirements for the device based on the Functional Analysis of the applications. We accumulated the Users’ Input & Output actions on the IKD device along with the actions they apply on the 3d virtual objects, as referred in the table below:

Actions on Objects Users Input / Output on Device

• Explore / Touch • Pick up • Move / Rotate • Release / Place / Throw • Pull / Push

• Move independently and accurately two figures (index and thumb)

• Feel 3DOF forces (weight, torque, collision) on two figures independently

• Perceive different types of surfaces independently in each fingertip of two figures

Table 2: Users actions and I/O

The users can investigate and explore various 3D objects and feel their material, surface, size,

shape, etc. or select, pick-up, hold, move, orient and release/place objects and feel forces on their fingers (weight, torque, collisions, etc.). Two users can act at the same time on different or the same object(s).

2.4 Educational Applications Scenarios

2.4.1 Introduction 1. Newtonian Physics, trajectories & the Solar System

Within this application, the user navigates through the solar system, collects information about it and interacts with the various elements that it is consisted of, such as the planets, the satellites, the comets and the asteroids. The user experiences the effect of the forces when accelerating objects as well as the strength of the gravitational forces applied to objects at different distances. For the purpose of interaction the user is endowed with “super-powers”. The MUVII H3DI is a chance for the students to experience, feel and steadily learn the effect of simple mechanics in the scale of our solar system.

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2. Model Assembly - Gears

The user will learn about the history of toothed wheels, gears and their applications through the years and will experience the assembly of some selected applications of gears through time. The user experiences the effect of the forces like weight, friction, motion, rotation etc. They will understand meanings like the transmission of motion from one part of a machine to another. A basic concept that is introduced in the applications’ description is the Metaphor. A metaphor is

visual, acoustical, or haptic representation of an event that takes place in the scene. For example, the event describing that the user’s hand has grabbed the spaceship has the (visual) metaphor of this spaceship that moves according to the hand’s movement. When the spaceship approaches a planet, a certain sound (acoustic metaphor) that corresponds to the strength of the gravity field is generated with escalating volume.

2.4.2 Newtonian Physics, trajectories & the Solar System – Detailed description The Application will have two modes: 2.4.2.1 Learning Mode

Learning means experiencing. During this mode the users experience the effect of the forces on objects as well as the strength of the gravitational forces applied to objects at different distances. Moreover, users can gather specific information (text, images, video) on space objects like asteroids, comets, satellites etc. and explore their surface (to the extent that it is possible e.g. softness – hardness smoothness – roughness etc.).

a) Intro

This is a short non-interactive demonstration of the Solar System. The camera follows a trajectory, starting from Pluto and heading to the Sun, so that the user can take a first look at the structure of the solar system, the relative sizes of the planets and their orbits. A label appears above each planet with its name, so that the user can have a first contact with the solar bodies.

b) Feel the gravity

The users grab two different spaceships. The users do not control the trajectory of the spaceships. Instead, the spaceships move on a predefined trajectory while H3DI responds (through force feedback) to the planets’ gravity fields. Thus, the users are able to concentrate on the forces they feel on their fingers and realize the different gravity fields of the planets. 3D sound effects will help users perceive the volume and the direction of the forces.

Figure 8: Exploring the planets

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c) Explore the planets Two spaceships are provided, one per user, while the viewpoint is controlled by the application. The

users will experience on their fingers the atmosphere of the planets, the meteor storms, the rings etc. They must collaborate in order to lead their spaceships to certain areas of interest. When approaching the planet, the special areas are distinguished with hot spot marks.

d) Feel the planets

A close-up, constant view of the planet is presented to them, so that they can gather specific information about it. The planet is converted into such a size that the user can use his/her hand to rotate it and explore its surface. The Metaphor is a huge-hand resembling the users’ hand on the H3DI device. They will be able to feel the geometry of the planet surface and distinguish between rock, ice and water surface types. Moreover, textual and pictorial information of the space object is presented on the side of the screen.

Figure 9: Feeling the planets

e) Newtonian Physics In a terrestrial environment (e.g. on the surface of the earth) the users will be asked to throw objects

simultaneously with two slings using their fingers and observe their trajectories (and how far they will go) with the corresponding physics equations, while experiencing a force feedback on their hands. This is a direct application of the physics law that equates the change in momentum with application of thrust. The users will have a selection of objects of various weights. They will be asked to select an object and simply throw it at a distance by applying different but scaleable forces. Several sounds are generated during the release of the string, while the object is traveling into the atmosphere and when the object hits the ground. To further facilitate the users we can envisage that they can apply different but scaleable angles 30°, 45°, 50°, 60°, according to the position of the hand. All these would result in keeping all the parameters effectively constant with the exception of the mass. The users would, therefore, directly relate their actions to the effect they experience. The effects of the Newtonian mechanics are felt and seen, they are related and they are lived, albeit in an artificial environment, friction-free and an environment, which specifically helps the user along the right direction. (In the real world air friction, especially on light objects, as well as the intricacies of throwing objects of various sizes along different angles posed too many parameters preventing such an observation.)

The user is asked to repeat the experiment with the same objects by selecting a different planet. While the masses of the objects remain the same, the results would differ according to the acceleration of gravity g of the planet. For instance, repeat the experiment on the surface of Jupiter (g = 2.354) and the surface of Mars (g = 0.357) or the surface of Pluto (g = 0.057). The user experiences this way the difference between inertia and gravitational force.

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2.4.2.2 Recapitulation Mode: (Exercising and Evaluating) This mode is for exercising, testing and consolidating the knowledge acquired during the Learning Mode. a) Cognitional Exercising

An exercise is aimed to young children and its purpose is to learn the order (i.e. relative position) of

the planets in respect to the sun. The solar system is presented as a template with nine placeholders on their orbit lines. The child should pick up each planet from an inventory and place it into the right placeholder. Each planet has different weight and size, which the user can feel. Each placeholder is different in size and can match only its respective planet. The users will feel attractive force when the selected planet approaches the right hole and repulsive when it approaches the wrong one. When a planet is placed on the right placeholder, it snaps in it and gets locked, followed by the appropriate success sound and vibration. If the child’s choice is wrong, a repulsive feedback will be generated, accompanied by the corresponding audio error message.

When aimed to more advanced or older users, the above exercise is attempted without the help of the orbit lines. The user has to place all the planets and at the end of the exercise the system will notify him on how many planets have been placed correctly.

Figure 10: Cognitional exercising b) Edutainment Mode

This mode consists of a game, called “Save the Earth!”, where the player must protect the Earth

from meteors or comets heading towards it. The metaphor is a shield that the player can move freely above the planet, in order to repel the meteors. The user can feel the force created when a meteor hits the shield, which varies according to the size and the shape of the rocks. Sounds are generated when a meteor hits the shield or a meteor hits the Earth. In case the user fails to repel one or more asteroids, an impact occurs, along with an explosion. In case of two users, there will be a co-operative mode, where 2 “shields” will protect the Earth. There will be also a score which will be increasing in case of a successful action or decreasing in the opposite case.

2.4.3. Model Assembly – Gears

Our virtual-experimental assembly exercises will give the students a chance to feel the experience of constructing devices that make use of gear theory. The devices will be constructed according to given drawings. The users, in all assembly exercises, will have more constructing parts than they need in order to think which of them they are going to use, according to operation principles of the devices. H3DI allows the users to feel the gravitational forces, the force-feedback of motion and the tactile-feedback of the various surfaces.

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The Assembly Applications will be: Watermill, Windmill Assembly Clock Assembly Differential Gear Assembly

2.4.3.1 Watermills-Windmills a) Intro Movie – Demonstration

The users will watch an introductory video or a 3d animation showing how watermills and windmills work. This will include an exterior view of these constructions as well as an interior view of their mechanisms. In this way the users will know how mills are built and operate.

Figure 11: Assembling a windmill

b) Mills Assembly At first the users will construct a watermill and a windmill. In landscape scenery (that includes a

small waterfall, or stream) the user has to choose a place to position the watermill and the windmill. The windmill will be placed in a position where it will be enough wind, while the watermill near to the stream. The users will be able to see a vertical section of the mills. In case two users will be present, both will be able to collaborate on constructing the mill. They will be able to feel the wind speed that differs among areas of the scenery, and hear the sound of a strong or weak wind blowing. Then they will place the mills in the correct position and by pressing a ‘Play’ button they will be able to watch them working. In this way the right operation of the mills will be verified. 2.4.3.2 Mechanical Clock a) Intro Movie – Demonstration

The users will watch an introductory video or 3d animation about the mechanical operation of the clock (a simple one), and they will understand the use of gears in measuring the time. b) Clock Assembly

The assembly of the mechanical clock will be performed by using a more simplified structure shown in Figure 12.

There will be approximately 5 parts (the mainspring will be possibly replaced) the users need to place at the right position. The users will verify the right operation of the mechanical clock by turning the power wheel and watch how the minute and hour wheels contribute in generating the time.

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Figure 12: Mechanical Clock demonstration

2.4.3.3 Differential Gear a) Intro Movie – Demonstration

The users watch an introductory video or animation about the operation of the differential gear and understand its operation in two cases: (1) the car moves straight and (2) the car turns. b) Differential Assembly

The construction will take place using the mechanism of the next Figure with the addition of a pinion gear that transmits the motion from the engine and will comply with gear 3. The number of assembly parts will be possibly 5.

Figure 13: Differential structure and rotation of gears when the car goes straight

Figure 14: Rotation of gears when the car turns

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3. Initial Demonstration & Testing

The Interactive Kiosk Demonstrator was tested by a limited number of school children (aged between 10-14 years old) in April 2004, and demonstrated for a larger number of users of various ages, (kids, teenagers and adults) at Laval Virtual in Laval, France in May 2004. Despite the fact that the device was aimed at children of ages above 10 years old, it occurred that even younger children (e.g. 7-10 years old) could use it effectively.

During the tests in Laval the users were very enthusiastic and attracted by the device and the applications. The content of applications was actually a functional test of the applications and the device. Its primary mode was a set of virtual cubes the users were asked to pick up and put in the proper placeholders. The kiosk made users very concentrated on their aim, and they had a very good perception of the scenes. They could manipulate the objects by moving them around the scene and place them in the proper positions according to application scenario. The Force Feedback characteristic of the device allowed them to perceive the object’s size and sense the weight while the Tactile Motors provided with the feeling of different surfaces. It was a very amusing procedure for users of all ages, because most of them had never had such an experience before. Almost no-one gave up trying to finish the application, despite the difficulties everyone faces when coming in contact with a new technology and a virtual space he/she has to interact with. The testers were invited to write their opinion and impression about the IKD, some of which are presented here:

Jeremy, 15:

Very impressive, especially the cubes. Realism and environment are very surprising. ”Congratulations, Thanks”

Christian, 36 : Very good sensation of the movements in space and of the grapping. Very realistic force feedback. Thank you

Maxence, 14: Very good tactile sensation (wall, gears). Very interesting subject. Great!!!

Kevin, 12: I find it very good fun, and I think that this system could be used to control/test objects in space or on planets.

Nicolas, 24: Feelings almost real, impressive sensation of resistance. I think that many useful applications can be developed.

Anonymous: Very good feeling of the movement - very practical and easy to use. There is a good feeling of touching.

Vincent, 20: “Yes !” Too good, very good tactile sensation, especially vibrating effects. It would be great for applications of technical assembly and mechanical object design in virtual images. Good job, honestly!

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Figure 14: Laval Virtual demonstration, a young user

The tests in Patras University provided us with useful conclusions about the educational effectiveness of Haptics in Education. A demo of the applications described in the present study was the subject of testing with 10 children aged between10-14. The children were very enthusiastic to interact with the planets and their phenomena and especially the feel of various gravity fields. Furthermore, the cognitional exercising of placing the planets at the proper places, completely attracted their attention, and later expressed their impression and preference in relation to conventional school exams. They had also the opportunity to fully understand how the gears work when we presented them the respective application that described how the clock works.

Figure 14: Laval Virtual demonstration, an adult user

4. Conclusions and Future work

It became obvious that, despite the small sample of participants during these initial tests of the Kiosk, Haptics Technology improves the level of perception for some areas of the Physic World due to the increased immersion it provides. Haptics offer a complementary mean of teaching and not a replacement for the existing ones. The additional sense, the touch and feel, reduces the distance between the Reality about certain phenomena of the physic world and the image-concept the children have formed about them.

Moreover, it becomes apparent that Haptics devices are not enough. The applications should reveal sufficiently the potentials and capabilities of the devices, in order to adequately satisfy users. To prove

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the devices’ usefulness, we must focus on issues that are hardly or erroneously understood by the children, rather than issues that “re-invent the wheel”. For example, one of the ideas that first came to our mind, in the beginning of the project, was to create Lego-like blocks and prompt the kids to construct shapes out of them. Almost straightway, we abandoned this concept, because we found no arguments to prove that kids would prefer to use virtual Lego blocks rather than the real ones. Haptics would offer nothing more than the usual real experience does.

The validation of the IKD will take place in July – August. The users are going to be children and teachers in Patras and close cities, and Students of Education and Physics in University of Patras. Their number will reach 200 people that will be visiting HPCLAB for 1 month. Questionnaires will be edited in order to be filled by each user after he/she tries the applications. By this way we will gather feedback from the users, evaluate and analyze their response and satisfaction, and perform minor improvements to IKD components and applications. REFERENCES [1] The University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill – Department Of Computer Science – “Nanoscale Science Education” Web Site : http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/nano/ed/haptic.html [2] M.Gail Jones, Thomas Andre, Atsuko Negishi, Thomas Tretter, Dennis Kubasko,Alexandra Bokinsky, Russell Taylor, Richard Superfine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ,Iowa State University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington : Hands-On Science: The Impact of Haptic Experiences on Attitudes and Concepts , Paper presented at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 25, 2003 [3] R.L. Williams II, M.-Y. Chen, and J.M. Seaton, 2003,Ohio University, Haptics-Augmented Simple Machines Educational Tutorials, Journal of Science Education and Technology [4] Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick by Microsoft Company : http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/sidewinder/FFB2.asp [5] Logitech Force 3D Joystick by Logitech Company: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/GB/EN,CRID=12,CONTENTID=5016 [6] Immersion Company Products http://www.immersion.com/3d/products/ [7] The Phantom Devices by Sensable Technologies Inc. http://www.sensable.com/products/phantom_ghost/phantom.asp [8] Mourad Bouzit, , Grigore Burdea, , George Popescu, , and Rares Boian, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey: The Rutgers Master II—New Design Force-Feedback Glove: http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/vrlab/publications/papers/2002_hap_sym_bouzit.pdf [9] PERCRO, Scuola Superiora de S.Anna , Haptic Interfaces : http://www.percro.org/researchmore.html#ancHaptic [10] High Performance Systems Laboratory, Computers Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, Greece www.hpclab.ceid.upatras.gr [11] IST Project, Multi User Virtual Interactive Interface Web Site http://muvii.hpclab.ceid.upatras.gr [12] Commisariat a l’energie atomique ,CEA www.drt.cea.fr/fr/prog/list/list_syst_int.htm

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[13] Novint Technologies www.novint.com [14] Ondim S.A. Paris, France www.ondim.fr [15] Laval Mayan Technopole www.laval-technopole.fr [16] Sintef Applied Mathematics www.sintef.no [17] De Pinxi www.depinxi.com [18] Ruhr-Universitat Bochum www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ika [19] Computouch Company www.computouch.no [20] Centre PIC www.pic.ru