Levitating Haptics Joystick Gives Good Feedback

SubComdrTaco writes "A controller developed at Carnegie Mellon University allows computer users to manipulate three-dimensional images and explore virtual environments not only through sight and sound, but by using their sense of touch. It simulates a hand's responses to touch because it relies on a part that floats in a magnetic field rather than on mechanical linkages and cables, according to Ralph L. Hollis, a Carnegie Mellon professor who developed the controller. The controller — like a joystick topped with a block that can be grasped — has just one moving part and rests in a bowl-like structure connected to a computer. Two of the controllers can be used simultaneously to pick up and move virtual objects on a monitor. In a demonstration Tuesday, visitors to Hollis' lab were invited to move an image of a pin across a plate of various textures, causing the controller to bump along ripples, vibrate across fine striations and glide across smooth areas. On one computer, users could "feel" the contours of a virtual rabbit. Hollis said his researchers had built 10 of the devices, six of which were to be sent to other universities across the country and in Canada, and that a new company, Butterfly Haptics, would begin marketing the device in June or July. The controller, which Hollis said will cost "much less" than $50,000, could enable a would-be surgeon to operate on a virtual human organ and sense the texture of tissue or give a designer the feeling of fitting a part into a virtual jet engine, or might also be used to convey the feeling of wind under the wings of unmanned military planes."

X-Rated Headline

[Hoi Polloi]

"Levitating Haptics Joystick Gives Good Feedback"

This has got to be the dirtiest headline Slashdot has ever written.

Save up to 50% or more!

[courtarro]

"The controller, which Hollis said will cost "much less" than $50,000..."

Well gee, that provides a lot of information.

Cheap!

[Thanshin]

The controller, which Hollis said will cost "much less" than $50,000...

Great. For a second there I thought I'd have to sell my house to buy the new toy.

Now I have hopes of only having to sell my car.

The real use

[RealErmine]

From the article:

Haptic technology has uses ranging from remote medical breast checks and exploring distant lands, to recreating the feel of fabrics.

I think we all know that this is a euphemism for pornography

RT X-Rated FA

[CarpetShark]

This has got to be the dirtiest headline Slashdot has ever written.

Possibly, but they'd have done better to just quote the article:

Haptic technology has uses ranging from remote medical breast checks

Somehow, I think this will have porn applications...

Bunny contours?

[Farmer Tim]

Professor Ralph Hollis now joins Hugh Hefner in being the only men in the world who make a living from feeling up bunnies.

Re:Cancer

[bkaul01]

Cancer? What is it about magnetic fields you think can cause cancer?

All cancer occurs on Earth, which has a large magnetic field, therefore magnetic fields cause cancer.

Or, we could blame everything on gravity. The same reasoning can conveniently be extended to any number of imagined causes. ;)