

A 3D haptic shape using ultrasound that can be seen and felt - TAM_cmlx
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2014/december/haptic-shapes-using-ultrasound.html

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

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jo_
Not just the title, but the article itself. "New research, using ultrasound,
has developed an invisible 3D haptic shape that can be seen and felt."

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spb
While this certainly looks better (cleaner + higher resolution and range) than
MIT's inFORM
([http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/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 be useful for quick/casual interactions, as well as its applications
in the medical field as michaeljansen notes).

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jere
>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.

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spb
> 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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hoohaah
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?

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junto
This seems to make the R2D2 Starwars Leia hologram message viable?

[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xIFJLMyUwrg](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xIFJLMyUwrg)

With this kind of technology built into Playstation 7 you'll be able to play
FIFA 2025 in a big living room with all your friends, with an entire mini
football pitch projected in the middle of everyone (in 4D?).

Awesome. I've been imagining this for years!

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

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deutronium
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.

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

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micheljansen
This solves a really big problem with gestural interaction, the lack of
feedback other than visual cues. Right now the only way to get this is through
gloves, rings etc. which are impractical at best and impossible for many of
the early use cases (for example: surgeons who need to keep their hands
sterile).

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Mithaldu
Well that's a demoscene platform that's not gonna translate well to the big
screen.

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transfire
This might have interesting application for android skins.

