Haptic texture represents the fine-grained attributes of an object's surface and is related to
physical characteristics such as roughness and stiffness. We introduce an interactive and
mobile scanning system for the acquisition and synthesis of haptic textures that consists of a
visually tracked handheld touch probe. The most novel aspect of our work is an estimation
method for the contact stiffness of an object based solely on the acceleration and forces
measured during stroking of its surface with the handheld probe. We establish an …

Haptics is a topic which, in recent years, has gained significant attention from several
research fields, including computer graphics, robotics, human-computer interfaces, and
virtual environments. Through the use of computer controlled forces, a user is given tactile
and kinesthetic cues about the underlying application. These cues enhance the overall
quality of the application, or possibly add a new dimension, by allowing the user to
experience first-hand some previously unavailable phenomena (eg, hardness, softness …