Haptic

Sébastien Kuntz, from a VR Geek Blob, got the opportunity to try the Virtusphere. From his blog post: "A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to test the Virtusphere for two days and could since watch several beginners try this device.

The Virtusphere is a 2.6m polycarbonate sphere of 120kg lying on wheels, with an incredibly sophisticated movement detection device below (a mouse!), used as a virtual reality locomotion device.

You enter the sphere by a small hatch, and are instructed to take small steps first. So a small step you make, and the sphere starts to roll, and you make another step to keep balance, and .. you’re walking! During the first session you might even be able to run, and a lot of people did! Especially girls who generally perform better than guys.

This Physorg.com article takes a look at the CyberWalk treadmill project at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. From the article: "Imagine being able to take a step back in time and walk through the streets of ancient Pompeii hours before the eruption of Vesuvius. In April 2008, European researchers will demonstrate that walking through virtual environments is set to be a reality.

“In the virtual environment you have flight simulators, car simulators, but the most natural way of locomotion for humans is walking and this was practically impossible,” says Marc Ernst, the coordinator of the CyberWalk project at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.

This NewScientistTech article takes a look at a new system using a camera to detect blood moving under the fingernail which can make almost any object touch sensitive. From the article: "Pressure-sensitive touch interfaces are common, but they usually require a smooth surface, with sensors on or beneath its surface. This is fine for simple and robust devices such as laptop touchpads, but it makes adding touch-sensitivity to irregular or fragile objects practically impossible.

However, a new system developed at the University of Nottingham, UK, can do just that. Unlike other systems, it detects the effect of touch on the finger, not the surface being touched. It works by using a simple video camera to observe the movement of blood under a person's fingernails.

Contrasting colours

[This Physorg article reports research published in the March issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is suggesting that we process images in two very distinct ways. From the article: " Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Psychologist Tzvi Ganel and his colleagues presented research participants with the “Ponzo” illusion, an image common in psychological research that makes two objects that are similar in length appear drastically different. They then hooked participants’ index finger and thumb to computerized position tracking equipment and asked them to grasp the objects with their fingers.

Even thought the object appeared to be larger (or smaller) than it really was, the size of their grasp reflected the object’s real rather than apparent size. For good measure, the researchers arranged the illusion so that the object that appeared to be the smaller of the two was actually the larger of the two.

This NewScientist article reports a machine that controls a novice's drumstick to help them learn how to play could be the first of a string of robotic musical teachers. From the article: "The device has also been found to cut the time it takes to pick up new rhythms, according to a study.

Music teachers often guide a student's hand to get across complex or subtle movements, says Graham Grindlay, a computer scientist who developed the device while at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, US. "I had the idea of a drum kit that would guide you through the playing," he says.

Grindlay previously experimented with guiding a drumsticks tip using magnets, but found a mechanical system more effective.

This NewScientistTech article reports climate researchers can now physically experience the complex data on their maps using a computer system that lets them "feel" wind speeds and other weather features using a joystick that simulates touching objects. From the article: "A trial of the system shows that it can help people understand how the climate works better than purely visual maps.

This NewScientistTech article takes a look at the "maglev" haptic system: a computer controller levitated by magnets which provides a new way to physically experience virtual objects. From the article: "The "maglev" system has benefits over more mechanical haptic controllers – computer interfaces that stimulate the user's sense of touch – and its inventors are now working to commercialising the technology.

This ScienceDaily article reports takes a look at the possibilities of enactive systems. From the article: "Up to now, most learning focused on abstract symbolic knowledge like writing, or passive receptive iconic knowledge through images. But there is a third kind, 'enactive' knowledge, or learning by doing. It is the information we acquire using our whole bodies, and it is a new paradigm in IT-assisted education.

Learning by doing, or by ‘enaction’, started at the dawn of humanity itself, from the time the first proto-human discovered that a bone could become a tool. But it is a practice that has become marginalised in developed societies, as convenience and, increasingly, technology lure people away from craftwork and physical labour.

Today, knowledge mediated by computers is transmitted symbolically, through writing, or iconically with pictures. But not, perhaps, for much longer.

This Columbian article takes a look at the haptic interface researches made at Washington State University. From the article: "This is how the Matrix begins: with Randy Bullion of La Center sitting in a white-walled lab, his right hand extended, grabbing at nothing.

The interesting thing here isn't the computer program that's tracking his movements and projecting an artificial world into the visor he's wearing. Virtual reality is old news.

The thing to notice here is the $4,000 metal glove draped over Bullion's forearm. It's his master's thesis, and it's one step in associate professor Hakan Gurocak's big plan to put Washington State University Vancouver's fledgling robotics lab on the map.

From the SPIE website: "Qonita Shahab, Yong-Moo Kwon, Heedong Ko, Maria Mayangsari, Shoko Yamasaki, and Hiroaki Nishino Haptics functionality and an immersive environment aid the joint manipulation of objects in virtual reality.