R. Brent Gillespie, (brentg@engin.umich.edu)
M. Sile O'Modhrain, (sile@ccrma.stanford.edu)
Philip Tang, David Zaretzky, Cuong Pham
ABSTRACT
This paper introduces the virtual teacher, a device or agent that
supplements a virtual environment in order to facilitate
acquisition by an operator of a manual skill. Like the virtual
fixture, a virtual teacher generally acts as an aide or
facilitator to task execution, but unlike the virtual fixture,
the virtual teacher is present only during training periods.
During eventual task performance the teacher is absent. The
virtual teacher's objective, implicitly understood by the
operator, is to promote independent mastery over the task. We
review and organize common paradigms for the teaching of manual
skills in real-world settings and use these as inspiration for
the design of virtual teachers. In particular, we are interested
in the ways in which a teacher, real or virtual, can impart a
`feel' for a task by contacting the pupil's hand and guiding
movement. Examination of the various arrangements of mechanical
contact between a teacher's hand, pupil's hand, and task handle
provides a useful classification of teacher/pupil interaction. A
pilot human subject study is used to test the virtual teacher
concept in a simulated crane moving task. You can download a postscript version of this paper.
