How can haptic feedback, which uses vibrations to simulate real touch sensations, be improved to provide more accurate data to users? This is what a recent study published in Science hopes to address as a team of more than a dozen researchers developed a novel technology for enhancing haptic feedback that produces complex sensations that were previously unattainable.
For the study, the researchers tested small-scale actuator technology that encompasses Bluetooth technology with the goal of enhancing the range of sensations for a variety of motions. In the end, the new device was able to sense vibrations from a variety of motions, including twisting, sliding, stretching, and pressure. This study comes after the same team of researchers published a 2019 study that developed haptic interfaces for virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR).
“Almost all haptic actuators really just poke at the skin,” said Dr. John A. Rogers, who is a Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University and a co-author on the study. “But skin is receptive to much more sophisticated senses of touch. We wanted to create a device that could apply forces in any direction — not just poking but pushing, twisting and sliding. We built a tiny actuator that can push the skin in any direction and in any combination of directions. With it, we can finely control the complex sensation of touch in a fully programmable way.”
Credit: John A. Rogers/Northwestern University
Going forward, the researchers aspire to enhance current haptic feedback applications, including mobile devices, gaming, the aforementioned virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), medical devices, industrial applications, and accessibility for disabled individuals.
What new discoveries about haptic feedback will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science, Nature, EurekAlert!
