Virtual Reality is a really neat idea but it's also problematic. The Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Galaxy Gear VR all let us see new, virtual worlds but none of them let us touch it. How do you physically feel what's not really there? Maybe with one of these batshit crazy controllers.
Microsoft Research has come up with a clever way to let users actually feel what they're interacting with on a touchscreen. And it doesn't involve complex finger contraptions, or bulky gloves. Instead, the researchers simply installed the display on a robotic mount that moves in response to where and what is being…
The lack of any tactile feedback makes it difficult to type or play games on a touchscreen device. So Swiss researchers have developed a new haptic interface that uses microscopic vibrations that could one day make touchscreens feel like they have individual buttons, or even distinct textures. Can I interest you in…
I'm not sure the practical uses of the HIRO III, but it sure is neat. Essentially, it's an interface device that you stick your fingers in, allowing you to feel stuff on a computer.
For every five products that claim some kind of haptic feedback support, maybe one actually puts it to good use—like the URC MX-5000 touchscreen remote, which uses the technology to guide your fingers while they guide your TV.
Haptic technology has the possibility to make touchscreens so much better, improving accuracy and adding a whole new range of sensory feedback. Immersion, primary developers of haptic technology, presented both a refined onscreen keyboard and an incredibly cheesy "Immersive Messaging" protocol at this year's All…
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated a device that can create touchable, creepily invisible floating "objects" using focused ultrasound waves. Though the technology is in the early testing stages, its designers have already expressed an interest in weaponi- I mean, commercializing it for possible…
Samsung's Miniskirt 2 is out, in some heinously Seventies colors. The slider phones, also known as the SCH-C225, the SPH-C2205 and the SPH-C2225, have the Smile Shot function, (pull a cheesy grin and it's captured for posterity) a 2-megapixel phone, GPS, Bluetooth, a vibrating keyboard and a dictionary. Available in …
Gadget Lab got a hands-on demo with a prototype magnetic levitation haptic control unit at Carnegie Mellon University, where they experienced the artifical feel (via magnets) of 3d rabbits, hard surfaces and vinyl records. In addition to simulating the general shapes of objects, the technology can accurately reproduce…
