Tactile Perception of Textiles in a Virtual-Reality System

This monograph originates from my work on the HAPTEX project. In - cember 2004 Prof. Franz-Erich Wolter, the head of the Institute of Man– Machine Communication of the Leibniz Universit¨ at Hannover, o?ered me the opportunity to participate in that EU funded project. Being a mat- matician I had only very little experience in the ?eld of haptic simulation in those days, but Prof. Wolter trusted in my ability to become acquainted with new ?elds of research in a very short time. I am still thankful for the con?dence he has shown me. Since then I indeed learned and found out a lot. With this monograph I try to pass on the knowledge I gained. Having a reader in mind who—like me at the beginning of the project—has no background in psychophysics, neurophysiologyortextileengineeringIwillprovidethenecessarybasics.The skilled reader may safely skip these parts. Nevertheless I presume some basic knowledge in mathematics. I hope that this thesis might help a newcomer to discover the fascinating ?eld of tactile simulation. This workwouldnot havebeen possible without the funding of the project “HAPtic sensing of virtual TEXtiles” (HAPTEX) under the Sixth Fra- work Programme (FP6) of the European Union (Contract No. IST-6549).