19th May 2005 06:52 AM
SINGAPORE: Researchers at the National University of Singapore’s Mixed Reality Lab have developed a way to transmit tactile sensations over the Internet. The system allows remote physical interaction in real time, with initial trials conducted using chickens. The birds wear haptic jackets that transmit sensation through tiny vibration motors.
"This is the first human-poultry interaction system ever developed," said professor Adrian David Cheok, the leader of the team, who has been developing the technology for nearly two years.
"We understand the perceived eccentricity of developing a system for humans to interact with poultry remotely, but this work has a much wider significance," he added.
Courtesy of the Mixed Reality Lab
The technology works using a doll with touch sensors that can also move forwards, backwards and rotate in response to the chicken’s movement. Interaction by humans with the doll is transmitted by radio to a nearby computer, then over the Internet to another machine close to the chicken and finally to the bird’s haptic jacket. The lightweight jacket transmits sensations in the exact same place where the replica was touched.
The team who developed the system predict its real potential will be for human-human remote interaction, with "tele-haptic" devices used to touch and feel sensations with other people over the Internet. They are investigating possibilities such as "Internet hugging" using a high-fidelity haptic suit for humans to impart a feeling of being hugged. Adding heartbeat and body-heat sensors could add a sense of intimacy.
"Current haptic displays typically allow a user to interact with a virtual or remote environment through a tool," says Allison M. Okamura, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. "Hence, the systems feel like you are poking at the world through a stick. A major challenge is providing the user with more delicate tactile sensations, such as feeling that occurs when one draws her finger over a rough or smooth surface. This kind of realism is difficult to achieve."
The director of the Information Laboratory at the University of Southern California, Cyrus Shahabi, believes the ability to feel the texture of an object remotely is at least a decade away. A professor of communication at USC added devices capable of rendering touch with any fidelity are "far too expensive to become consumer items."
Such statements are often traditionally made concerning emerging technologies, however: miniaturization and mass production have brought us a variety of high-tech consumer devices never previously considered possible, for example personal computers.
The team will begin work on a human version of the haptic suit in August this year, and estimates it will take about a year to produce the first prototype.