Trade.Information

Topic Name: Haptic technology ; the sense of touch to virtual worlds

Category: STAR (Space, Telecommunications & Radioscience)

Research persons: Professor Alan Marshall

Location: Queen's University of Belfast,Ashby Building,Belfast, BT9 5AH, United Kingdom

Details

The virtual universes could integrate the direction of the touch. The group of researchers behind the experimentation in the long term hopes to revolutionize the experiment of the Web like video game.

And if the researchers of Quenn' S University of Belfast invented the virtual touch? They would be in any case taking the way of it. Taken along by professor Alan Marshall, from the teams of the electronic department, electric engineering and data-processing science of the Irish university begin a three years program devoted to the addition of this third direction to our virtual peregrinations. For the time being, it is indeed possible only to see and hear in the universes 3D created artificially.



Haptic technology


This research will be based on technologies known as haptic, to implement interfaces making call within the meaning of the touch by the exercise of forces, vibrations and movements in direction of a user. This mechanics is applied for the creation of virtual objects authorizing the physical contact, objects in particular intended to appear in haptic virtual environments.

At present, the apparatuses with the haptic functions are applied only to isolated systems. Supported by British BT, American Immersion, and Canadian HandshakeVR, the group of research aims at the development of a network of haptic apparatuses for the creation of perceptible environments to the touch.
The possibility of making interact distant people in the same “palpable” universe is also in sight.


Touch to revolutionize the experiment of the numerical one

Still it will be necessary circumvented the limits imposed by the Web such as the variability of the band-width or the times of transmissions. Problems on which should also lean the researchers. “If we enter one second era of the Internet, the network should be able to deal with multimode communications including the use of new directions”, declared professor Marshall. And to add, “take Nintendo Wii. It already revolutionized the experiment of play without to allow new feelings related to the touch. Imagine what it could be of it if we could put ourselves in the skin Roger Federer and feel each impact of service, in real time”.
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