Technology has
changed rapidly over the last few years with touch feedback, known as haptics,
being used in entertainment, rehabilitation and even surgical training. New
research, using ultrasound, has developed an invisible 3D haptic shape that can
be seen and felt. The research, led by the University of Bristol's Department
of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new
technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel
a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses
ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt.
By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen
as floating 3D shapes. 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. The system
generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create
something that can be seen and felt.
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