Gadgets Get the Feel of the Tactile World
From: New Scientist - 07/15/2006 - Vol. 191, No. 2560, P. 26
BY: Paul Marks

Haptic devices, or devices that stimulate the sense of touch, are approaching
a price point that could finally enable widespread deployment of gadgets such
as a cell phone with a GPS device that would guide a user to his destination
through physical impulses. Whereas haptic devices have so far been limited to
simplistic uses such as the vibrating feature in cell phones and game
controllers, new applications could transform entertainment and
communications, and provide assistance for the visually impaired. Video-game
controllers will take a giant leap forward with the Novint Falcon, a device
that can simulate the weight and recoil of a gun and the feeling of wading
through water. The controller is made up of a round gripper attached to a
base with three mechanical arms, which create a three-dimensional resistance
when force is applied from motors in the base. The device uses a commoditized
version of the technology that enables computer artists to sculpt virtual
clay and allows surgeons to manipulate robotic arms. As researchers look to
develop even more sophisticated haptic devices, they face a major challenge
in creating hardware that can simulate texture and elasticity to the same
ultrasensitive degree as human skin. "The hand is exquisitely sensitive to a
range of textures," said Susan Lederman, head of the Touch Lab at Queen's
University in Ontario. "The ideas in this field have always been inhibited by
the technology available." A team of Canadian researchers has developed a
tactile display for mobile devices consisting of an array of electrically
charged bars that, when touched by a finger, tricks the brain into thinking
that the finger is actually touching an object with shape or texture.
Meanwhile, NTT has developed a handheld device that it will showcase at this
month's SIGGRAPH conference that actually pushes a user in a given direction
by creating the sensations of movement. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19125606.000

Links:
Novint Falcon
http://www.novint.com/falcon.htm

Susan J. Lederman
http://pavlov.psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/lederman/lederman.html

Touch Laboratory
http://psyc.queensu.ca/~cheryl/labpage.html