i3Space
AIST i3Space - Touchable 3D TV
The Ubiquitous Interaction Research Group at AIST has developed i3Space, a system that gives a sense of touch and interaction to 3D images. It also enables shapes to be designed while checking how they feel to touch.
"Until now, with 3D TV, when the picture came right out, and appeared before your eyes, you couldn't touch it. This technology enables you to touch that 3D picture."
In this system, position detector markers are attached to a compact tactile and kinesthetic interface. They recognize the user's movements, and control the presentation of tactile and kinesthetic information in real time, to provide sensations from the 3D picture.
"To enable users to feel force, the system uses vibration. It's like the vibration of a mobile phone. It creates an illusion by means of characteristic vibrations. Normally, vibration doesn't have a direction of force, but with this technology, you can feel a force pushing or pushing back."
This system can also measure the movement of several fingers from six directions simultaneously, so finger movement doesn't get hidden by the palm. From the finger positions, the system can detect contact between fingers and the 3D picture, and when the user grips the picture. It also detects expansion and contraction after gripping. Based on this detection, the system enables the user to feel a force, by calculating the sensation and response between the 3D picture and the fingers, and controlling the interface accordingly.
"Games can now be played with 3D pictures, but at present, they're played from a distance, with a remote control. With this system, when a picture appears before your eyes, you can manipulate it by touching or pushing it. The system could also be used for training purposes; for example, as a surgical simulator in medicine, providing sensations like using a scalpel. I think it could also enable people to touch sculptures in an art gallery while at home."
From now on, the group will work to make the system more compact and improve its performance. They also plan to collaborate with electronics manufacturers, to enable the system to support smartphones, and develop applications and do field tests.
"Until now, with 3D TV, when the picture came right out, and appeared before your eyes, you couldn't touch it. This technology enables you to touch that 3D picture."
In this system, position detector markers are attached to a compact tactile and kinesthetic interface. They recognize the user's movements, and control the presentation of tactile and kinesthetic information in real time, to provide sensations from the 3D picture.
"To enable users to feel force, the system uses vibration. It's like the vibration of a mobile phone. It creates an illusion by means of characteristic vibrations. Normally, vibration doesn't have a direction of force, but with this technology, you can feel a force pushing or pushing back."
This system can also measure the movement of several fingers from six directions simultaneously, so finger movement doesn't get hidden by the palm. From the finger positions, the system can detect contact between fingers and the 3D picture, and when the user grips the picture. It also detects expansion and contraction after gripping. Based on this detection, the system enables the user to feel a force, by calculating the sensation and response between the 3D picture and the fingers, and controlling the interface accordingly.
"Games can now be played with 3D pictures, but at present, they're played from a distance, with a remote control. With this system, when a picture appears before your eyes, you can manipulate it by touching or pushing it. The system could also be used for training purposes; for example, as a surgical simulator in medicine, providing sensations like using a scalpel. I think it could also enable people to touch sculptures in an art gallery while at home."
From now on, the group will work to make the system more compact and improve its performance. They also plan to collaborate with electronics manufacturers, to enable the system to support smartphones, and develop applications and do field tests.
(retrieved information on: https://www.diginfo.tv/v/10-0154-r-en.php)
My point of view:
AIST (Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) in Japan reached a technological course, proposing a new form of interaction between the real and the virtual.
Since the late 90s, the public could appreciate the improvements in 3D designs or through films available at the box office, or more recently video games, with a degree of realism pushed more further.
The major innovation made by AIST institution allows to use a new meaning, the individual using the system will no longer be a mere spectator appealing to his sense of sight, it will become a full-fledged player in the world 3D, which by touch allow him to feel the impact that this environment has on him.
At this stage of the i3Space technology, are characteristic vibrations that allow the user to feel the sensation of touch, but nothing prevents to imagine thereafter, it will be by electrical signals produced by transmitters characteristics which emulate the signals generated by the human body to make the same feel sensations.