Someday soon, drivers will be alerted by a little tap on their shoulder when another car is riding on their blind spot.
The car, which springs out of research from Purdue University and other U.S. research institutions, is an early application for haptics -– the science of integrating the sense of touch into human/computer interactions. And it promises to greatly expand the reach of computers into everyday life.
Haptics is "based on the way the brain processes information," said Mk Haley, chair of the just-completed Emerging Technologies Exhibition at the Siggraph conference and a researcher at Walt Disney Imagineering. "If the information is based on physical sensations, your reactions are much, much faster."
The Emerging Technologies exhibition was show-and-tell for the latest generation of haptics projects from around the world -– ranging from a "sensing chair" developed by Purdue's Haptic Interface Research Laboratory to MIT Media Lab's "origami desk," which helps users create origami structures through sensors embedded in the paper.
The sensing chair –- whose technology is helping researchers at Honda, Nissan and Ford -– contains tiny vibrators that can send sensations to the person sitting in it. It also contains 4,032 sensors that pick up subtle cues from the person sitting in it.
Purdue researchers see the chair as a potentially useful aid to rehabilitation. A wheelchair, for example, might be able to sense its occupant's body position and change resistance against portions of their back, lowering the likelihood of sores developing. The chair also makes a nifty cockpit seat for a virtual racing game. To steer the car, the driver simply shifts position.
A sensing vest developed by the university is being tested by NASA in near-zero gravity environments in planes. Pilots in such situations often lose their sense of visual direction, and tactile cues can help orient them. "With JFK Jr., the consensus is that he probably got spatially disoriented," causing him to crash his plane, said Hong Tan, director of Purdue's haptic research laboratory.
Japanese researchers, reflecting their country's traditional expertise in advanced microelectronics, had some of Emerging Technologies' most compelling exhibits at the recently completed Siggraph graphic arts convention in Los Angeles.
A glove developed by Tokyo University scientists was connected through a computer to a display that allowed the wearer to "crush" objects by clenching their fists.
A Japanese project called "Feelix" allowed visitors to "manipulate" objects that were projected onto a plastic film. Another, called "Interface touching the interface" used a robotic arm to enable users to "feel" resistance between two surfaces whose boundaries couldn't normally be sensed -- such as the boundary between oil and water.
Such projects have strong potential in biochemistry and medicine. The emerging technology of "molecular manipulation" could enable drug researchers to gain a tactile sense of when the compounds they're working with are stable.
Many uses for haptics may end up being just plain fun.
Disney's Haley sees plenty of applications for theme park rides.
In fact, Disney already has a few. In "Alien Encounter" at the company's Florida theme park, visitors are spooked into believing something's right behind them by a computerized puff of air on their backs. And in the recently opened Disney's California Adventure, the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" experience graphically makes its point by poking visitors' backsides.
