Primroselea
Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 10
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 Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 10:44 am Post subject: Touch to feel the virtual world |
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Haptic technology, which simulates the sense of touch through tactile feedback mechanisms, has been described as "doing for the sense of touch what computer graphics does for vision." Haptics are already common in devices such as smartphones, where touch sensations such as clicks and vibrations enhance the user experience. When it comes to virtual reality, however, it's far more challenging to translate tactile cues. Auditory and visual feedback are fairly easy, and applications can be controlled using keyboards, joysticks, steering wheels, or, in the case of Kinect, the human body.
But how can a user touch and feel objects inside the virtual world? Can a flat touchscreen convey depth, weight, movement, and shape? Yes, say scientists in the Natural Interaction Research group at Microsoft Research Redmond. Mike Sinclair, Michel Pahud, and Hrvoje Benko mounted a multitouch, stereo-vision 3-D monitor on a robot arm to study how the kinesthetic haptic sense, which relates to motion rather than tactile touch, can augment touchscreen interactions.
The result is Actuated 3-D Display with Haptic Feedback, a project that features a haptic device that provides 3-D physical simulation with force feedback. The system consists of a touchscreen with a robot arm, engineered for instant, sensitive responsiveness, smooth forward and backward movement, and applications that support multitouch screen interactions, force sensing, 3-D visualizations, and depth movement. By moving a finger on the screen, the user can interact with on-screen 3-D objects and experience different force responses that correspond to the physical simulation. Demonstrated in public for the first time during TechFest 2013, the project intrigued attendees, who lined up to try this unique, immersive experience.
One project application consisted of three virtual 3-D boxes, each with different virtual weights and friction forces corresponding to their supposed material: stone, wood, and sponge. Users could push with a finger on the screen into the virtual space until they encountered one of the boxes, and the device simulated the appropriate resistance through force feedback as the user pushed at each box. The force-feedback monitor responds to convey the sensation of different materials: The stone block "feels" hard to the touch and requires more force to push, while the sponge block is soft and easy to push
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