Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!ogicse!milton!hlab From: cygnus@cis.udel.edu (Marc W. Cygnus) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: Telepresence Message-ID: <1991Apr22.004936.27476@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 21 Apr 91 23:24:02 GMT Article-I.D.: milton.1991Apr22.004936.27476 References: <1991Apr17.052444.17140@milton.u.washington.edu> Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab) Organization: UDel Artificial Life Group Lines: 57 Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu In article <1991Apr17.052444.17140@milton.u.washington.edu> almquist@brahms.udel .edu (Squish) writes: -> -> ->According to the article, J.C. Bliss and J.G. Linvill at Stanford ->created a device that would translate print into "feel" enabling ->blind people to read. This gadget fits on your fingertips and ->has many miniature photocells that sense light and little vibrators ->that allow the finger to sense remotely the fine shape of letters. ->What ever happened to this work? Has anyone seen it? Is anyone ->still working with/on it? This perhaps would be a good solution ->to the tactile problem? [...] Interesting thought. Yes, I believe it's still around. Two observations: (1) The device is meant to convey information about the shape of letters, and accomplishes this via a matrix (if i remember correctly) of vibrating pins. The vibration helps the user to distinguish between letter and non-letter. (2) People who have used the device more than just occasionally report a loss of fingertip sensitivity, presumably due to the repeated "overstimulation" of the touch receptors. [ I don't remember my source for the latter, but it was verified in a conversation with a friend who works with rehabilitative technologies at a local medical institute ] -> [...] In addition, Mr. Minsky talks about one ->of his graduate students, Danny Hillis, who fabricated a thin, ->skinlike material that can "feel" and transmit small tactile ->surface features. Again, does anyone have any further info? -> -> ->- Mike Almquist (almquist@brahms.udel.edu) Now that sounds cool. What I would like in *my* version of reality is true rough texture. [ I know, might as well ask for a direct occipital interface too, eh? ;-) ] I wonder how one might approach true "sandpaper"-like texture... IMHO it will not be duplicated with a technology that relies on an X by Y array of elements which are raised or lowered in a Z direction to simulate small tactile features (the Disney pin-box thing...). Can it? Better yet, has it? Of course, then there's the question of exactly how much "roughness" would we want to simulate? It might be a bummer to skin your elbows on the virtual wall around which you're jumping. But then again, maybe it might *not* be! How far could tactile texture technology (wow) go before the risks of injury got out of hand? (now, it *would* be a bummer to skin that elbow because of a code error somewhere) -marcus- -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of anyone in particular." UDel Artificial Life Group (Graphics Support) | INET: cygnus@cis.udel.edu 114a Wolf Hall (Irisville) (302) 451-6993 | CompSciLab: (302) 451-6339