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Ford and a scientfic body in the UK have just introoduced a new amazing technique for VR, one where you can enter a virtual world to choose the colour and design of a car you wish to buy, this includes changing the upholstery and whether you want a hard top or soft, this will apparently save millions on car design and cut down the time it takes to design a new car.
It is based on shutter glass VR technology which also employs tactile(touch)sensors through special gloves, so the feel of the VR is almost real.
This technology can be applied too many different areas, for instance surgeons may be able to recreate a life saving operation before actually doing the operation, it seems that we are another step closer to a star trek idea, the holodeck.
ADMHow the hell do the gloves work? Or rather what do they actually do? How can they simulate the feel of a non-existant object?
If you mean it’s like you can feel the car (i.e. it feels solid when you wave your hand in the direction of the virtual motor), how? Without some sort of attachment that would restrict the movement of your arm, giving the illusion of your hand touching a solid object, your arm would keep moving and go straight through your virtual dream car.
If you mean it just simulates the textures of the material ‘n’ stuff, I refer you to my previous question (that was ‘How?’ if you weren’t paying attention).
The only way I have seen this done effectively was using a table of ‘pins'(like the executive toys that you can press your face into and leave the shape for all to see). Each pin was connected by hydraulics to a computer controller. The computer could simulate different surfaces, but only things like bumps, curves, etc. It didn’t alter the feel of the surface, just the shape. Quite flash at the time (a few years ago I think), and rather pointless (too expensive and bulky with a small effective area for any real application).
I know that you can get VR suits that will apply pressure to various areas of the body (no you perv’s, not that sort of suit. Get your minds out of the gutter) by inflating small air pockets. But I can’t see that giving you anything close to realistic feeling VR.
It’s done by tactile response, basically the gloves send nerve impulses to the brain that are simulated by the computer, in essence it’s the same theory as bionics.
Not the bionics of the Six Million Dollar Man, but the technology exists to implant a small microprocessor that would be attached to an artificial limb, so although you would not get full motor activity with the prosthesis, you would be able to do basic movements like picking something up.
As the brain receives electrical impulses to guide your movements, the glove sends the same impulses by inducing pressure on certain nerves to imitate touch, the clever part is how the computer decides how much pressure is involved.
The computer is programmed to know how much of a charge or pressure is needed too to get the get the right ‘feel’.
Possibly the closest Sci-fi film to mimic this is The Lawnmower Man, and by the sounds of it the virtual world is not far off being like Jobe’s.
ADMTrue, you will feel pressure when you virtually touch something but your hand still isn’t encountering any resistance (not that I see any such sensations being experienced virtually any time soon).
I suppose the only way yo simulate the resistance of trying to put your hand through a solid ,object like a car, would be some sort of exoskeleton on your arm that selectively locked movement in certain directions.
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Originally posted by CBrate:
True, you will feel pressure when you virtually touch something but your hand still isn’t encountering any resistance (not that I see any such sensations being experienced virtually any time soon).
I can’t say for sure, but I imagine that the system will allow for varying degrees of resistance, as it will be used for doctors performing surgery and battlefield simulations, and I would think that in this it would need resistance.
As the tactile unit is meant too send an impulse to your brain, I would say that it fools your brain into believing that you were encountering resistance, as far as I am aware so long as you send the right signal too the brain, you can make it believe anything.
I guess it’s similar to being blind, when blind you’re brain has too form an image in your mind for it too use an item such as a chair, the same would apply here, touch is basically an added tool to allow you to have an understanding of how something works, your eyes just guide you, but it is touch that tells you how to manipulate an object. So with this technology it is just sending your brain an instruction of what it is your touching and how to use it, like you would do normally.
With this in mind, it’s possible to feel hold and cold, or the touch of a virtual pet, the possibilities are endless, you’ve seen it in science fiction many times, it’s just another one of those things that have become a reality.
ADMYeah, but that’s not going to be practical for a few years yet (in anything other thand R&D anyway). Plus the risk of any powered exoskeleton, if they get it wrong, it could break limbs. If I go looking at a new car, I’d rather it didn’t end up with a trip to casualty. But I’m picky like that.
Saying that I don’t suppose it would be too difficult for them to mock up a ‘form’ of the car (basically a cars shell) and map the spacial co-ordinates of the VR sim to the real space co-ords of the form. That way you could actually touch the car and see and feel the selected colours and fabrics. You could even get in and see it from the inside. That would be cool to see (purely from a tech-head point of view).
*sniffle* an entire post lost. I’ll try it again.
I was playing with a pin box. It’s one of those box’s that have several steel rods that can ‘sculpt’ whatever object is is placed upon. I pushed back with my other fingers. It made the pins feel hard or soft depending on the force I used. My fingers were on the same pins yet I could hurt or soften the sensation depending on the force.
The gloves in a VR machine could fool the hands into thinking something is solid from this push sensation. When you push on something, like your computer desk, the pads of the fingers are flattened. Easy enough to fool them into thinking something is hard, soft, smooth or bumpy.But what about those arms? How could the arms be fooled into thinking something is there, I wondered. It occurred to me that the only reason I know I’m typing and not hitting pebbles is because of my sight. My eyes see what I’m doing, my fingers confirm what I’m doing, so my brain says, yes, your typing. If a person has on VR goggles and gloves, the fingers ‘feel’ the wheel, the eyes sees the steering wheel, so the brain says, yes, your driving a wheel, so the arms are reacting along with the sight and the feel.
Exactly what I was attempting too say Trillian (sorry peeps I sometimes get carried away with the science side!!!), as for your arms feeling that pressure, well as your nerve impulses run from your fingertips through your arms then you will still get a sensation of force being applied, your muscles contract because of an electrical response from your brain.
The same prinicple is used too work muscle pads, short electric pulses are sent directly to the muscle which causes it too flex independently of your brain, but these pads give off a higher current than these gloves, as your fingertips are helluva lot more sensitive and don’t require much stimulation for your brain to register a response.
An exoskeleton simply is not required here as you will not move to an oject, it will move to you, but the same applies to your feet, if pads were applied to your feet you could essentially move in VR without your legs being in motion, however legs are more difficult as keeping your balance would be tricky too acheive.
ADM
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