X3D Scenarios and Case Studies:
Real World Applications - Real World Solutions

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SenseGraphics H3D API

You have some nice 3D models but you are missing one major thing; without being able to touch the objects, you don’t really get the feeling of presence, immersion and control that you wish. The problem is you have no or little programming experience but would love to add haptics to your virtual world. Your problem is the complex programming needed to be able to render both graphics and haptics in the same scene and then make sure that the visual and haptics experience agrees.

This is where SenseGraphics H3D API comes in - it is a scene graph API that performs both graphic and haptic rendering from a single scene description. All you need to do is to export your 3D model to an X3D file and then set some haptic parameters and H3D will take care of the rest.

For the one with more programming experience you can quickly and easily add some interaction properties to your models by using python scripts.

As you get more familiar with python you might find that your needs get more advanced too. This is not a problem since the H3D API is open source and you have full access to the source code which makes it possible for you to implement your own custom made nodes to the API.

You can also visualise medical datasets, such as CT and MRI. You can easily load the images into your X3D scene and then visualise and manipulate it with the help of the Volume Haptics Toolkit, VHTK, a toolkit to the H3D API.

H3D API, a dual commercial and GPL licensed software development platform for multi-sensory applications, and developed by Web3D member SenseGraphics (www.sensegraphics.com), is available for download at www.H3D.org.

To get the H3D downloads go to:
The Download