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A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

bris.ac.uk

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Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#11
Almost any announcement associated with Bristol Interaction and Graphics (BIG) should be taken with a pinch of salt. The group follows a similar approach to MIT's media lab - lots of conference publications and heavy on media exposure.

Does anyone remember the demos of Pranav Mistry's sixth sense device in 2011?

Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#13
post #6

While this certainly looks better (cleaner + higher resolution and range) than MIT's inFORM ( http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/inform/ ), it's still bound to a surface, and effectively just a 2D monochrome image presented with pressure instead of light. What I want to see is a haptic method that can represent complex topologies, and at the moment, it looks like that's still gloves (although this will certainly b…

Agreed, amazing new interfaces could be made if we could touch a complex 3d topology. Although the demonstration fell flat of those expectations, I still think that sound is the way to go in the future.

I could wrong about this intuition, but I think this mainly because of the simple fact that sound is just disturbances in a medium that we are walking through constantly and can feel to some degree (ie air).

Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#17
post #6

While this certainly looks better (cleaner + higher resolution and range) than MIT's inFORM ( http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/inform/ ), it's still bound to a surface, and effectively just a 2D monochrome image presented with pressure instead of light. What I want to see is a haptic method that can represent complex topologies, and at the moment, it looks like that's still gloves (although this will certainly b…

>it's still bound to a surface, and effectively just a 2D monochrome image presented with pressure instead of light.

I don't follow you. inFORM looks like a heightmap, yes, but this claims to be a volumetric shape.

Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#18
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Contrary to what the images want you to believe, these are invisible shapes, detectable only by touch.

It does however say "Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp." Although I assume that's not the normal mode of operation.

Well no. If so, you'd have to stick your hand in the oil. Useless.

Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#19

The title is wrong. It can be felt, not seen. Note their mention of "invisible."

Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.

They were probably referring to the oil depressions being visible but the title is certainly misleading.

Re: A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt

#20
post #17
post #6

While this certainly looks better (cleaner + higher resolution and range) than MIT's inFORM ( http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/inform/ ), it's still bound to a surface, and effectively just a 2D monochrome image presented with pressure instead of light. What I want to see is a haptic method that can represent complex topologies, and at the moment, it looks like that's still gloves (although this will certainly b…

>it's still bound to a surface, and effectively just a 2D monochrome image presented with pressure instead of light. I don't follow you. inFORM looks like a heightmap, yes, but this claims to be a volumetric shape.

> this claims to be a volumetric shape.

From the implementation, you can clearly tell it isn't, though. There'd be no way to feel the underside of that sphere.

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