Tactile technology guaranteed to send shivers down your spine

Surround haptics exploits phantom sensations and other tactile illusions

2011-08-09

(Press-News.org) PITTSBURGH—A new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP), called Surround Haptics, makes it possible for video game players and film viewers to feel a wide variety of sensations, from the smoothness of a finger being drawn against skin to the jolt of a collision. The technology is based on rigorous psychophysical experiments and new models of tactile perception. Disney will demonstrate Surround Haptics Aug. 7-11 at the Emerging Technology Exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2011, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Vancouver. In the demonstration developed in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and others, the technology will enhance a high-intensity driving simulator game in collaboration with Disney's Black Rock Studio. With players seated in a chair outfitted with inexpensive 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. "Although we have only implemented Surround Haptics with a gaming chair to date, the technology can be easily embedded into clothing, gloves, sports equipment and mobile computing devices," said Ivan Poupyrev, senior research scientist at DRP, who invented and developed Surround Haptics with Ali Israr, also of DRP. "This technology has the capability of enhancing the perception of flying or falling, of shrinking or growing, of feeling bugs creeping on your skin. The possibilities are endless." The DRP researchers have accomplished this feat by designing an algorithm for controlling an array of vibrating actuators in such a way as to create "virtual actuators" anywhere within the grid of actuators. A virtual actuator, Poupyrev said, can be created between any two physical actuators; the user has the illusion of feeling only the virtual actuator. As a result, users don't feel the general buzzing or pulsing typical of most haptic devices today, but can feel discrete, continuous motions such as a finger tracing a pattern on skin. The phenomenon of phantom sensations created by actuators has been known for more than 50 years, but its use in tactile displays has been limited because of an incomplete understanding of control mechanisms. DRP researchers were able to develop their control algorithm by systematically measuring users' ability to feel physical actuators vs. virtual actuators under a variety of stimulation levels. They then developed control models that were validated by further psychophysical experiments. In addition to enhancing user experiences with interactive games, movies and music, Surround Haptics' underlying technology promises to provide new tactile means of communication for the blind, emergency workers, vehicle operators, athletes and others. ### The SIGGRAPH demonstration of Surround Haptics was developed in collaboration with Kenny Mitchell and Huw Bowles of Disney's Black Rock Studio; Neil Hutchinson of Roundcube Entertainment Ltd; Christopher Ioffreda, an undergraduate in Carnegie Mellon's School of Design who is a Disney lab associate; Mark Baskinger, CMU associate professor of design; Seung-Chan Kim a Ph.D. student in the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who is interning at the Disney lab; and Jan Stec, a recent graduate of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center who interned at the Disney lab.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Urgent assessment in emergency departments can reduce surgical decision time and overcrowding

2011-08-09

CHICAGO (August 8, 2011) – The use of Acute Care Emergency Surgical Service (ACCESS) in emergency departments (EDs) can lead to significant reductions in key patient measures, such as length of stay, surgical decision-making time and "time-to-stretcher" (one measure of overall ED overcrowding), according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Emergency departments are a crucial point of access to the health care system for patients with a broad spectrum of injuries and illnesses, and overcrowding has been identified ...

Number of laparoscopic bariatric procedures continued to rise between 2003-2008

2011-08-09

CHICAGO (August 8, 2011) – According to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, there was an increase in the number of laparoscopic bariatric procedures, an increase in the number of bariatric surgeons and a decrease of inhospital mortality rates between 2003 and 2008. During the past decade, the field of bariatric surgery has changed dramatically and the authors concluded that these trends are due, in part, to an increase in the use of laparoscopic techniques and a greater acceptance of bariatric surgery by patients. "We've ...

You can count on this: Math ability is inborn

$You can count on this: Math ability is inborn$

2011-08-09

We accept that some people are born with a talent for music or art or athletics. But what about mathematics? Do some of us just arrive in the world with better math skills than others? It seems we do, at least according to the results of a study by a team of Johns Hopkins University psychologists. Led by Melissa Libertus, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the study -- published online in a recent issue of Developmental Science -- indicates that math ability in preschool children is ...

Like superman's X-Ray vision, new microscope reveals nanoscale details

2011-08-09

Physicists at UC San Diego have developed a new kind of X-ray microscope that can penetrate deep within materials like Superman's fabled X-ray vision and see minute details at the scale of a single nanometer, or one billionth of a meter. But that's not all. What's unusual about this new, nanoscale, X-ray microscope is that the images are not produced by a lens, but by means of a powerful computer program. The scientists report in a paper published in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that this computer program, or ...

USC scientist develops virus that targets HIV

2011-08-09

In what represents an important step toward curing HIV, a USC scientist has created a virus that hunts down HIV-infected cells. Dr. Pin Wang's lentiviral vector latches onto HIV-infected cells, flagging them with what is called "suicide gene therapy" — allowing drugs to later target and destroy them. "If you deplete all of the HIV-infected cells, you can at least partially solve the problem," said Wang, chemical engineering professor with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The process is analogous to the military practice of "buddy lasing" — that is, having a ...

Peak oil and public health: Political common ground?

2011-08-09

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 8, 2011)—Peak petroleum—the point at which the maximum rate of global oil extraction is reached, after which the rate of production begins to decline—is a hot topic in scientific and energy circles. When will it occur? What will the impact be? While geologists and economists debate the specifics, American University School of Communication professor Matthew Nisbet believes peak petroleum and the associated risks to public health may provide an opportunity to bring conservatives and liberals together in the move toward alternative forms of energy. "Somewhat ...

World survey links religion and happiness -- for some

2011-08-09

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — There may be a few atheists in foxholes, but a new study suggests that in societies under stress, those who are religious outnumber – and are happier than – their nonreligious counterparts. Where peace and plenty are the norm, however, religious participation is lower and people are happier whether or not they are religious, the researchers found. A paper describing the research appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study analyzed data from the 2005-2009 Gallup World Poll, a survey of people in more than 150 countries that ...

'Good' prion-like proteins boost immune response, UT Southwestern scientists report

2011-08-09

DALLAS – Aug. 8, 2011 – A person's ability to battle viruses at the cellular level remarkably resembles the way deadly infectious agents called prions misfold and cluster native proteins to cause disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. This study marks the first discovery of so-called "good" prion-like proteins in human cells and the first to find such proteins involved in innate immunity: the way the body recognizes and responds to threats from viruses or other external agents, said Dr. Zhijian "James" Chen, professor of molecular biology and senior ...

Rats control appetite for poison

2011-08-09

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 9, 2011 – Life is tough for woodrats in deserts of the U.S. Southwest. There are few plants for food, and those plants produce poison to deter rodents, insects and other animals. A new University of Utah study shows how certain woodrats put themselves on a diet to avoid poisoning: They sample a smorgasbord of toxic plants, eat smaller meals, increase time between meals and drink more water if it is available. "For decades, we have been trying to understand how herbivores deal with toxic diets," says biology Professor Denise Dearing, senior author ...

A change in perspective could be all it takes to succeed in school

2011-08-09

Knowing the right way to handle stress in the classroom and on the sports field can make the difference between success and failure for the millions of students going back to school this fall, new University of Chicago research shows. "We found that cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, can either be tied to a student's poor performance on a math test or contribute to success, depending on the frame of mind of the student going into the test," said Sian Beilock, associate professor in psychology at UChicago and one of the nation's leading experts on poor ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Tech Extension Co. and Tech Extension Taiwan to build next-generation 3D integration manufacturing lines using Tokyo Tech's BBCube Technology

The threat of polio paralysis may have disappeared, but enterovirus paralysis is just as dangerous and surveillance and testing systems are desperately needed

Study shows ChatGPT failed when challenging ESCMID guideline for treating brain abscesses

Study finds resistance to critically important antibiotics in uncooked meat sold for human and animal consumption

Global cervical cancer vaccine roll-out shows it to be very effective in reducing cervical cancer and other HPV-related disease, but huge variations between countries in coverage

Personalised “cocktails” of antibiotics, probiotics and prebiotics hold great promise in treating a common form of irritable bowel syndrome, pilot study finds