
Ultrasound technology lets you touch and manipulate virtual objects - akrymski
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-02-03/uk-startup-ultrahaptics-is-making-virtual-reality-feel-more-real
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taliesinb
Didn't care much for the article, but the linked Nature Communications paper
"Holographic acoustic elements for manipulation of levitated objects" is quite
fun:

[http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151027/ncomms9661/full/nco...](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151027/ncomms9661/full/ncomms9661.html)

Short 3 minute summary video from the supplementary materials, which has a
fair amount of eye-candy:
[http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151027/ncomms9661/extref/n...](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151027/ncomms9661/extref/ncomms9661-s3.mov)

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thaw13579
This is great work, but this is another article trying desperately to give one
person credit for something that an entire community of researchers has been
working on. They go as far to claim ultrasonic haptics was "abandoned" in the
70s and they're the only one working on "in the air" haptics, and yet, a few
minutes of searching shows similar work done at University of Tokyo and Disney
research:

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7593444.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7593444.stm)

[https://www.disneyresearch.com/project/aireal/](https://www.disneyresearch.com/project/aireal/)

That said, translating this stuff to a product line is the real challenge, and
they seem to be doing impressive stuff there. But priority claims really take
away from that.

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oliv__
All of the examples shown in the video demo look so painfully unrealistic and
impractical: every situation seems to beg for an actual, you know, button.

Using two fingers to air swipe a virtual knob to bring up the heat when you're
cooking? Really? How does that make anything any easier?

Even worse: trying to do so while driving. Good luck with that!

The technology seems promising but I just don't see it happening for any of
the demo'ed use cases.

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tdb7893
Not everything is supposed to be immediately applicable. I'm guessing it will
be a while before we start some stuff like this in consumer products but
seeing the first steps of it is pretty cool still

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jarmitage
I've played with one of their kits, it's definitely fun. The level of
definition for different textures was surprisingly good as well.

Worth noting that you have to orient your hands horizontally to the device
like with the Leap Motion to get a consistent result.

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joezydeco
From your account, and looking at the pictures, you need to hold your
arm/hand/finger in the air to make this work.

How long can you do that before it becomes uncomfortable (aka "gorilla arm")?

~~~
jarmitage
Good point, although I wasn't using it long enough to know exactly. I imagine
you could apply the same rule of thumb as with other gestural controllers.

Another aspect of fatigue would be: does the user become fatigued/insensitive
to the haptic interaction over time?

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Kinnard
This makes me think of the description in Genesis of the Universe being
created through speech— the Universe is the sustained epiphenomenon of 10
utterances:

[http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/677029/jewish...](http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/677029/jewish/Ten-
Utterances-of-Creation.htm)

. . . also, this is like the coolest thing ever . . .

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kriro
Seems to be great for texture already. I wonder how you can integrate it into
the typical VR setting. I'm envisioning some sort of bubble around the person.
Or at least I guess you'd need to be surrounded by the ultrasound speakers in
some way.

Stopping movement is of course also very tricky/tough. Picking up a mug of
coffee is a killer app. If that ever works with the right feedback the future
is here.

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melling
Gesture based computing is almost here in some form. Apple, Google, Intel and
Microsoft are all working on it:

Apple: [http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/02/apple-proximity-sensors-
patent...](http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/02/apple-proximity-sensors-patent/)

Intel Real Sense - [http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-
tech...](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-
technology/realsense-overview.html)

Google's Soli chip -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0)

Microsoft shipped the Kinect 6 years ago.

The need for hand tracking with VR headsets should give it another boost.

By the 20th anniversary of Minority Report?

[http://youtu.be/7SFeCgoep1c](http://youtu.be/7SFeCgoep1c)

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rm_-rf_slash
Gesture input is ultimately pointless without force feedback, or else you
don't feel the interaction and the lack of intuitive feeling makes you want to
go back to comfortable interfaces.

I remember being really excited for the Wii and swinging my sword for the
first time in Legend of Zelda. My sword was blocked; my hand kept moving.
Immersion gone.

~~~
melling
What you have done is give an example where it would be an improvement to have
force feedback. It's a common fallacious way to try and disprove something.

It does not mean that this is the general case. Actually, it doesn't matter if
it is. If there are a dozen uses without feedback, and 3 dozen uses with
feedback, it's still a big win to get the first dozen uses.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
It is a big loss regardless if the lack of convenient feedback means the
application is never used, even if force feedback is not necessary to
function.

~~~
melling
yes, it's a big loss if you have nothing now and add a solution for some
people. But since it can't meet the needs of everyone ... </sarcasm> You want
it all or nothing. seems unreasonable.

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
As Tim Cook said to me, if you make something that doesn't change behavior,
it's a gimmick, and it won't last.

If motion sensors have an application - perhaps for people with disabilities -
by all means go for it. But innovation for its own sake can be a waste of
time.

~~~
melling
Do you mean like speech recognition before it's 100% ready? It's pretty
limited now and I've noticed that Siri is easily confused and people seem to
have to repeat themselves quite often.

Obviously, motion sensors have a lot of use without force feedback. Feel free
to wait until that point. Telling the rest of us that we don't need it seems
pointless.

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dankohn1
I just want someone to figure out how to immobilize muscles so that you can't
"push through" the feedback. Then, I can get my full body holodeck.

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kaybe
That sounds scary.

(And here we go again, my brain is throwing misuse scenarios at me..)

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thenomad
Yup.

The problem is not designing solid haptics.

The problem is designing solid haptics that can't easily kill or maim you.

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xjay
You could virtually punch someone with this tech. Transduce this!

Blind people can feel their way around a user interface, or perhaps a
projected face from a 3D door camera.

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interdrift
Was thinking about it yesterday!! Really cool stuff that you got something
working!

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mschuster91
Awesome. But one thing is still missing: temperature and especially
temperature response gradients - like, when you touch a simulated piece of
aluminium foil it will adapt to your hand temperature while a "solid steel
block" will feel colder than your hand for longer time.

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Grishnakh
Ok, when can we expect holodecks, and even better, Quark's holo-suites?

