Separate DOF control and mutual guidance in networked haptic collaboration maze game: Design and evaluation

In this paper we study on haptic collaboration in a maze game over computer network. Two players located at separated places operate each haptic device to collaboratively finish the game task. Herein, a new collaboration mode of manipulation - separate DOF control is proposed for the first time. Separate DOF control here means each player controls one DOF of an object or a task independently in collaborative virtual environment. Mutual guidance is also proposed which provides guidance force to each player. We setup an experiment to evaluate its efforts on cooperation performance and co-presence. Twelve participants did the experiment. The results revealed that this collaboration mode is effective. Ten of the twelve participants believed that they performed well in the experiment and thought the collaboration way was very interesting. The presented results motivated a new haptic collaboration mode in the fields of game design, education and cooperative assembly.