Haptic interaction with video and image data

A method of haptically interacting with a video image, comprising:

• receiving a video image;
• displaying the video image;
• determining three-dimensional geometry of one or more objects represented in the video image;
• determining material properties of said one or more objects represented in the video image;
• elucidating a three-dimensional model for said one or more objects represented in the video image;
• and
• haptically interacting with said model;
• wherein haptically interacting with said model includes sending haptic data to a haptic display device and receiving a force delivered via the haptic display device;
• and
• said one or more objects represented in the video image are visually seen in the video image to respond to the force delivered via the haptic display device.

A system for haptically interacting with a video image, comprising:

• a video display module configured to receive and display a video image;
• an image understanding module coupled to the video display module for processing the video image;
• a model recognizer module coupled to the image understanding module for recognizing a model;
• and
• a haptic display module configured to provide interactions with one or more objects represented in the video image using haptic data sent from the image understanding module and a force applied by a user;
• wherein the one or more objects represented in the video image are visually seen in the video image to respond to the force delivered via the haptic display device.

A system for haptically interacting with a video image, comprising:

• means for displaying a video image;
• means for determining the geometry of one or more objects represented in the video image;
• means for assigning material properties to said one or more objects represented in the video image;
• and
• means for haptically interacting with said one or more objects represented in the video image by sending haptic data to a haptic display device and receiving a force applied by a user via the haptic display-device;
• wherein the one or more objects represented in the video image are visually seen in the video image to respond to the force applied by the user via the haptic display device.