Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Posted by Roberto
4:00 PM
0 comments
MARRYING VISION AND SOUND WITH TOUCH SENSORY INTERFACES
Most people's experience of haptics so far has been limited to vibrating cellphones and games controllers for consoles such as Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. These use a motor to spin a weight that is mounted off-centre on a spindle. As the weight rotates, its eccentric motion jerks the gadget around, providing a rough-and-ready vibration or rumble.
Nintendo's forthcoming Wii console, will for the first time offer 3D-motion sensing too. Players will be able to swing an on-screen baseball bat or tennis racket or wield a virtual paintbrush, just by moving the controller through the air. When it comes to haptic feedback, however, even the Wii's controller is limited to little more than a simple shake and rumble.
For most gamers, the first truly sophisticated haptic controller will be the Novint Falcon. Gamers will be able to "feel" the weight and recoil of a gun and experience the sensation of wading through water in games such as the shoot-'em-up Half-Life 2. The Falcon controller consists of a spherical gripper connected to a base by three mechanical arms. As you move it around, motors in the base apply forces to each arm to create resistance in three dimensions. This gives the illusion of touching a solid object or the push of a moving one, letting users feel weight, texture, shape, dimension, dynamics, 3D motion and force effects.
Gadgets get the feel of the tactile world - New Scientist 14 July 2006
Nintendo Wii - Controllers
Novint Falcon
- Trend Hunter
- Cool Infographics
- Information Aesthetics
- Interactive Architecture
- dataisnature
- Creative Observer
- Design Spotter
- feeladdicted
- Paleo-Future
- TechCrunch
- Trendwatching.com
- Graffiti Research Lab
- t r a n i s m
- Douwe Osinga
- AudioCubes.com
- we make money not art
- Pasta and Vinegar
- Lunch over IP
- Engadget
- Unusual News/Ideas
- CScout Trendblog
- Agenda Inc. News
- digg labs / stack
- Technorati
- Robots Dreams
- gadgetblog
- Create Digital Motion