Holographic 3D Displays with Tactile Feedback

If you want to see where user interface for computing, gaming and appliance user interface may possibly be heading (and likely, considering 3D is being pushed hard as consumer technology in the display market), you might want to watch the video above showcasing the haptic technology of Professor Hiroyuki Shinoda and his colleagues at Tokyo University...

"Up until now, holography has been for the eyes only, and if you'd try to touch it, your hand would go right through," Hiroyuki Shinoda, professor at Tokyo university and one of the developers of the technology, told Reuters.

"But now we have a technology that also adds the sensation of touch to holograms."

The system uses ultrasonic waves that recreate the tactile sensation of feeling an actual object. The amusing note is the researchers used the off-the-shelf Nintendo Wii controllers to track movement, so elements of the system seem not too far off from the distance of being realized on a commercial scale.

[via Boing Boing]

Comments (1)

the wiimotes seem simple but its the ultrasound technology that makes it complex (and probably expensive). that is the exact same way ultrasound machines for medical use are operated (although im not sure if this one uses a piezoelectric crystal...) and they go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

very cool idea though

posted by lnp838 on September 17th 2009 at 5:24pm
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