[Philip Lelyveld comment: there is a Falcon device in the ETC 3D Lab]
[New Electronics]
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One promising example of haptics is OmniTouch, a wearable projection system developed by Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the US. It enables users to turn pads of paper, walls or even their own hands, arms and legs into graphical, interactive surfaces.
A significant innovation of OmniTouch is its use of a depth sensing camera, similar to Microsoft’s Kinect, to track the user’s fingers on everyday surfaces. This means they can control interactive applications by tapping or dragging their fingers, much as they would with conventional touchscreens. The projector can superimpose keyboards, keypads and other controls onto any surface, adjusting automatically for the surface’s shape and orientation to minimise distortion of the projected images.
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US company Novint Technologies is a leader in haptic interfaces for gaming, in the form of its Falcon and XIO products. Users hold onto the Falcon’s grip and as it moves, the computer tracks a 3d cursor. When the cursor touches a virtual object, the computer registers contact with that object and updates currents to motors in the device to create an appropriate force to the device’s handle, which the user feels.
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Another unusual haptic interface also developed at CMU is based on magnetic levitation. Invented by Ralph Hollis, of CMU’s Robotics Institute, the maglev haptic interface allows users to perceive textures, feel hard contacts and notice even slight changes in position. …
Surround Haptics, a new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP), enables video game players and film viewers to feel a variety of sensations – from the smoothness of a finger being drawn against skin to the jolt of a collision.
It has been demonstrated enhancing a driving simulator game in collaboration with Disney’s Black Rock Studio. With players seated in a chair with vibrating actuators, Surround Haptics will enable them to feel road imperfections and objects falling on the car, sense skidding, braking and acceleration and experience ripples of sensation when cars collide or jump and land. …
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Read the full story here: http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-technology/will-haptics-transform-the-way-in-which-we-interface-with-electronic-devices/40302/