Computers Convey Sense of Touch

Multi-touch interfaces recently took center stage, again, with the introduction of newer Apple laptops outfitted with a multi-touch trackpad, and multi-touch is quickly working its way into your computer display as well.

My question is, how much feedback can this system give our actual sense of touch? Achieving this is a whole different set of objectives all together. A game controller does this, in a way. They’re a type of what is referred to as a haptic interface, the car crashes the joystick vibrates.

The newest haptic interface, developed by Ralph L. Hollis and team of Carnegie Mellon, allows you to feel a virtual product by providing users feedback on gravitational resistance and surface texture using magnetic levitation and, that’s right, a joystick. The difference here is the sensations that are delivered by Hollis’ haptic device mimic what the hand would feel with much more accuracy.

This is achieved through the implementation of a magnetic resistance to simulate sense of touch. The controller is topped with a hand grasp, and the stick ‘floats’, or is suspended by way of opposing magnetic fields in a bowl like apparatus.

Butterfly Haptics, the firm marketing the interface hopes to have this device ready and available by June or July.

Some expected applications include virtual surgery or virtual dentistry training. The trainees would be able sense the texture of a tissue, or feel the resistance from a tooth being drilled.

As the technology advances, haptic devices will seep into our everyday lives even further. Their pervasiveness is already evident. The popularity of vibrating cell phones and game controllers has eased this technology into our culture. Adapting more advanced haptic interfaces into our everyday lives shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

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Sprint PCS' Airave, Cost Shifting?

The Sprint network may have been the first network to go "all digital", but being an innovator in any industry your company is going to bare the brunt of the research and development cost. The payoff, being the leader and getting first crack at the new market share your product or service created.Then others follow your lend, add to your findings, and make the product or service better. It's the heart of capitalism, competition. Sprint coverage is getting out done by most major carriers. Other carriers, for one thing, are much more apt to deny you a service contract if your credit is bit smudged.

It would seem Sprint's solution to lack of network infrastructure, is YOU. Airave by Samsung is Sprint's newly announced add on to help you get a signal...as long as your high speed internet connection is up and running. Airave uses the internet to place calls thus helping to ease those overage charges and nasty dropped calls. When the signal from your Airave is out of range it seamlessly jumps back to the Sprint tower. This servers two purposes: first, if they sell enough of these units it may enable Sprint to take a reasonable sized chunk out of the cost of keeping up with growing network demands, secondly it will enable Sprint users to place calls in buildings that insulate there Sprint handsets from the tower's signal.

If you factor in the unit cost vs. the amount you can save by reducing you overage charges, or changing to a lower tier plan, the Airave makes an underachieving wireless carrier a bearable bargain.

"Starting today, Sprint customers in select areas of Denver and Indianapolis will be able to purchase the Airave at area Sprint stores for $49.99. Sprint plans to make the Airave available later this year to customers in the remainder of Denver and Indianapolis, along with Nashville, and to customers nationwide in 2008."
[via Sprint]

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Robotic Techs Revamp iRobots

Were you the type of kid who would take apart and correctly put back together the toaster oven? Or maybe you rewired the blender to have an extra special speed for making that wood pulp you used to in your homemade paper projects. Well times have changed for kids these days, the old Rector set no longer moves by human muscle power alone. You can't just be mechanically inclined anymore. Programmable robotics are becoming a pervasive part of early childhood development. So what recourse are the adults left with these days except to steal some alone time with their kids favorite robotic recreation set; hardly, if you have a hankering for some electrical, robotic, and mechanical engineering you could just hack your Roomba or Scooba iRobot or get the hackers version, the iRobot Create, which is capable of anything your imagination can dream up and you and your brain can figure out, provided of course that the task involves the iRobot running along on the floor. How about this dot matrix based poster maker robot[Wyatt]. Complete with an extra wide vertically mounted sharpie that slides back and forth in order to write the letters which, of course, are really just a series of marker dots. Undoubtedly, it's easier to hand write your poster, or print a banner on your non dot matrix printer...but where's the fun in that. Creativity and technical knowhow enjoy a harmonious dance, when adaptations such as this are created. Now, with the FCC just last year approving the WiFi module for the iRobot, any number of programming commands can be given on the fly. So do something to satiate your creative appetite while wrestling with the technical challenges of programming. "Techies" pick your task and re-designate and re-program your own iRobot.

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