Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne have invented an ultra-thin second skin that can deform and adapt to your moving body. The skin is designed to give you touch feedback that feels natural without using electronic vibration.
This could be the breakthrough that VR headsets have been missing.
Published in the journal Soft Robotics, the research describes a soft skin that is less than 500 nanometers in thickness. The skin is equipped with pneumatic actuators that will actually make you feel you are touching something real, rather than just the simulation of an electronic haptic engine, which doesn’t really feel like the real thing at all. The artificial skin also has integrated sensors that send data used to modulate the pressure. The scientists claim this is the first time this has been accomplished.
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Kim Flintoff
onto Augmented, Alternate and Virtual Realities in Education |
This could be the breakthrough that VR headsets have been missing.
Published in the journal Soft Robotics, the research describes a soft skin that is less than 500 nanometers in thickness. The skin is equipped with pneumatic actuators that will actually make you feel you are touching something real, rather than just the simulation of an electronic haptic engine, which doesn’t really feel like the real thing at all. The artificial skin also has integrated sensors that send data used to modulate the pressure. The scientists claim this is the first time this has been accomplished.