from ACM technews
'Touching' Research at Queen's
Queen's University Belfast (08/30/07) Mitchell, Lisa
Queen's University Belfast researchers are studying haptic technology that
could add a sense of touch to virtual worlds, a project that may eventually
lead to technology that allows online shoppers to feel products, online
gamers to feel the force of an impact, or blind and visually impaired
people to access the Internet in ways that are currently impossible.
Queen's University professor Alan Marshall and his colleagues in the School
of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will spend the
next three years developing new network architectures that would allow
online networks to carry haptic information. Haptic technology allows
users to "touch" virtual objects by applying forces to the user, normally
vibrations or motions. Currently, almost all haptic devices are only
capable of being connected to a standalone system. Marshall wants to
develop networks that increase the user's immersion in a virtual world by
allowing them to see, hear, and touch the environment around them, with the
ability to share those sensations with users in other locations. "If we
are to enter the 'second age' of the Internet, then it must be able to
support multimodal communication, including additional senses," Marshall
says.
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