Haptic Devices in a Virtual Real World.
Haptic Devices in a Virtual Real World.Until recently, computers could only send information to your eyes or ears. A new technology has emerged, called haptics (from the Greek word haptikos, "able to touch"), is giving computers the capability to send information from and to your body. Haptics equipment uses vibrators, electromagnets, motors, pumps, and brakes to add a variety of tactile sensations to human-computer interfaces, so you can actually feel the information.
In the near future, haptics will have the greatest impact in the field of medicine and entertainment. Doctors are learning how to perform complicated and risky surgical procedures by practicing on machines designed to mimic the sensations of prodding, poking, cutting, and guiding various instruments into the human body.
A company that manufactures haptics based training equipment, has sold hundreds of these devices to teach doctors and students how to use various instruments including endoscopes.
These Tele-Immersive devices use tactile feedback and a computer representation or simulation of say a human arm to instruct nurses and medical students how to insert a catheter through the skin of a patient and guide it through an artery. Students can actually feel the "pop" of the needle as it penetrates the skin and enters a vein. The software has been developed that can simulate the variety of different kinds of patients, from a child with small veins to an IV drug user with toughened veins. In years to come, haptics devices will be used to help doctors perform routine examinations and perform real surgery on patients hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Looking beyond, haptics will be used to help online shoppers get a feel for the quality of materials used in merchandise offered for sale on a say a Web site. Early prototypes of texture simulators use dozens of tiny hairline metal pegs arranged in arrays of columns and rows. Depending on the data the device receives, certain pegs will protrude and other will recede, providing the illusion of corduroy, sandpaper, polished wood, beard stubble, or any other textured surface. Because the heat transfer characteristics of materials are an important part of accurately simulating a surface, the pegs can be heated or cooled to the appropriate temperature.
So far, textural haptics aren't fully developed ready for mass use. Major design challenges lie ahead before shoppers will be able to feel the difference say between a silk purse and a Sow's ear.
However, sex aids are now available in the form of life size genitalia for both the male and female human. These Haptic devices together with the software are controlled or driven using the hi-speed USB ports and can be tailored to suit the individual requirements. Pressure, temperature, and motion are controlled using gyros, accelerometers, and a variety of sensors.
But, will lovers have the ability to hold hands remotely with haptics?
See http://www.mellanium.com for more information on Virtual Real Worlds.
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About the Author
Ken now researches the digital 3D to 3D medium about to transform the real world.