Virtual gaming has been a big highlight of most games nowadays, with a lot of focus being placed on the visual and audible aspect. In my opinion they seem to be doing a pretty good job, but what about the sense of touch? The only real virtual technology we have is the force feedback we get from our controllers, whether it be a steering wheel or joystick. However this is about to change with a new haptic technology developed by scientists at the University of Tokyo.
The Japanese team has used Ultrasound technology to focus inaudible sound waves into a vertical virtual shape, whereby a human could “touch” it and get the sense of feeling the edges of a shape. The concept behind the technology is rather simple. A machine is set up to produce concentrated sound waves. These sound waves are inaudible, but because it is a wave, it has some form of pressure attached to it. When this pressurized wave hits your hand, it feels like you are actually touching something. The computer then tracks the movement of the hand (with a camera) as well as the position of the virtual shape to manage the focus of the ultrasound waves.
The system is still in its initial stages and can only produce a vertical plane but they are working on the wave concentration to manage other axes, hopefully with the goal to produce a fully 3D object. Professor Iwamoto has already visualized the unit being used in the video game and 3d modelling industry. The unit is certainly a big step from the past models where users had to wear big, thick gloves to experience feeling. Also, many people can interact in the same environment, so everyone can get a “feel” of the environment at the same time.
There are still lots of hurdles to overcome, the biggest one being the risk of using too much ultrasound waves. If too much waves are output, users could risk going deaf. The team is still hard at work exploring lots of concepts to better develop the virtual texturing, hardness and dimension characteristics of objects produced by the unit. Even with these few problems, it is still a great development for gamers, engineers and architects. We would just have to wait for more from this possibly industry-changing project.
via: BBC News
