Virtual Reality emerged as a new frontier of engineering during the 1990s. The development of the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and large display systems changed the landscape of many areas of product development, including design of products, visualization of assemblies, and simulation of manufacturing systems and factories. Early applications of such virtual reality systems utilized 3D visualization using stereoscopy and user input devices such as the data glove and wand for interaction. However, it was realized very early during the development of such systems that a key ability lacking in such interactive systems was the lack of sensation of touch-an area that has come to be known as haptics.rnWhile haptics as a science has been investigated and researched from the days of telerobotic systems, it emerged as a new paradigm for interacting with human computer systems only since the mid-1990s. The advent of commercially available haptic devices in 1995, such as the PHANToM? brought forth an easy to integrate hardware-software system. As a result, haptics became a readily available form of interface for numerous applications. Over the past ten years, haptics and tactile systems have entered the mainstream of commercial products in the form of force feedback gaming interfaces and touch sensitive telephones and mobile devices.
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