Development of an Active Display

In this paper, a novel display system named "active display" is proposed for bi-directional telexistence system. It consists of a 5-bar spherical parallel mechanism, a LCD and 3 actuators. The LCD is moved by the parallel mechanism along a spherical surface whose center is at the head of the operator. Its motions are synchronized with a remote camera system. As a result, the operator can see anywhere in the remote environment with realistic sensation similar to a head-mounted display (HMD). In addition, the facial information of the operator can be easily acquired because the monitor is separated from his/her face. This feature yields a big advantage compared with the HMD. Furthermore, it allows the operator to access peripheral devices very easily. The concept of the active display, details of the developed mechanisms, the control system and the human interface are discussed. In addition, to confirm the feasibility, several experiments are executed.