Position determination of a popup menu on operation screens of a teleoperation system using a low cost head tracker

We develop a multi-purpose cockpit system which enables an operator to control various robots remotely. The system consists of multiple screens, a multi-purpose haptic device, and a touch screen interface. The screens provide the states of robot, the image captured by a camera on the robot, and a virtual 3D environment constructed by using the robot controlled remotely. The multi-purpose haptic is a control stick which enables the operator to control the robot with various operation manners by deforming its configuration. Although the operation manner can be changed by using the touch screen interface, the manner is desirable to be selected in a popup menu which appears on the screen. In this paper, a position determination of the popup menu using a low cost head tracker is introduced. A fixation point of the operator on the screen is estimated by use of the head tracker. The popup menu appears in the place which the operator is looking at, and can be operated by switches added on the grip of the haptic-device. Usability of the implemented functions are confirmed in simple experiments.