US Patent 9478109 Virtual sensor in a virtual environment

A system for generating haptic effects includes a virtual environment having environmental properties, virtual objects, and object property information. A programmatic virtual sensor is placed on a virtual object in the virtual environment. A rendering engine for the virtual environment renders the virtual environment. A module for the virtual sensor receives virtual sensor data including position and time for the sensor and calculates sensor output data including acceleration data and object interaction data for the virtual sensor. A haptic track generator generates a haptic track based on the sensor output data.