Next Great Step In Computer Graphics

At Carnegie Mellon University research professor Ralph Hollis and his team of researchers have developed a new haptic technology, or technology that connects to the user using the sense of touch by forces and vibrations, where a person can manipulate a 3-D object while experiencing real touch sensations. This technology is an amazing step in computer graphics, now during video game play and computer training simulations people can actually experience the feeling of whatever it is they are doing on the screen.

This technology will be very useful for dental students while training the new Magnetic Levitation Haptic Interface (MHLI) will allow them to feel the difference between hard tooth enamel and soft tissue. The MLHI is a bowl shaped object called a “flotor”, this is composed of a control stick attached to the flotor and about six coils that interact with magnets inside the device. Once the electricity and the magnets interact the flotor literally floats allowing the control stick interact with the graphics on the screen.

Hollis and his team are not the first to come up with force- feedback technology; companies like Immersion work to expand this technology. One of the biggest fields affected by haptic technology is the gaming world. For many years now video game controllers have had vibrations that allow the player to feel, depending on the game, when they are being shot or touched. An even faster growing field for this technology is the field of medical simulation training. These simulations give students and existing medical personal the experience needed to do certain operations by trail and error without the risk of hurting a patient. Immersion also works with touch screens giving the user back the acknowledgement of when they touch a button by vibrations and forces, which many people think is the major problem with touch screens.

Hollis told TechNewsWorld, "The principal downside to this technology is the limited range of motion, you can move in about a 20 millimeter sphere. However, you tend to focus on the graphics and you don't really notice that you are moving in a very small area with your hands. You become immersed in the graphics." This is also the main problem with mouse today but like Hollis said you tend to get submerged in the graphics.

Even though The Magnetic Levitation Haptic Interface is still just a prototype the product only has room for improvement. The future of this haptic technology is vast and exciting who knows where this technology will take us one day. Maybe one day we will be able to put on goggles and gloves and virtually see and feel a 3-D graphic and also manipulate and work with it with both hands.

Information from TechNewsWorld.com

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/61756.html