Virtual Mobility, anyone? Let your fingers do the walking in a virtual environment

By DAVID FAUCHEUX

Recently, while reading an email from KurzweilAI.net, I let my mind take a flight of fancy. Not a virtual flight. Though that may come sooner than you think. I envisioned a world where chemistry could be taught haptically to blind students who could examine atoms and arrange them virtually, morphological concepts would be a touch away, and studying design and architecture would be around the next click. Perhaps, virtual haptic Web Braille could be downloadable into a library. Imagine reading Braille on your fingertip, with a sleeve that used technology not as delicate as the tiny pins that tend to want to weaken and die.

Could be the start of something wonderful. Your treadmill walk might be thru an exciting virtual cityscape. You might learn to play haptic piano, sculpt in a haptic medium, or develop an environment never before dreamed of. Perhaps, a strange Jell-o-like world with spheres and parabolas.

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New devices promise touchy-feely
computing

NewScientist.com news service August 20, 2007

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Haptic technology, which exploits
the sense of touch, could have a
range of applications, researchers
say, from telesurgery and robotic
remote control to more immersive
computer...