Haptics

​It was just last year that we heard about the Fundamental Surgery simulator, which utilizes dual haptic feedback arms to provide the "feel" of performing various surgical procedures. The system has now been taken a step further, with the demonstrated integration of whole-hand VR gloves.

​EICMA, probably the world's premiere motorcycle expo, is thundering up on us, and one release we're excited to check out will be Arc's new Vector, an electric streetbike hailing from the UK that promises to launch with a heads-up display helmet and haptic feedback jacket.

VR motion controllers work pretty well at syncing up the movements of digital digits with your real ones, but they aren’t all that good at recreating the sense of touch. Scientists from EPFL and ETH Zurich have developed new haptic gloves that could help users get in touch with virtual objects.

​Among a bevy of announcements from Acer's IFA press event, the largest, in literal terms alone, has to be its beastly Thronos gaming chair – nay, cockpit. Of course there was no hesitation in going hands on…

While there are already surgical training systems that use VR headsets to "place" students in an interactive computer-generated operating room, a new simulator goes a step further. It incorporates haptic feedback, allowing users to actually feel the pressure exerted by digital tissue.

Training firefighters can be dangerous, costly and time-consuming. To help train firefighters more often and more easily, a new virtual reality simulator called the FLAIM Trainer has been developed, made up of an HTC Vive VR headset, haptics systems and a vest that tracks the trainee’s vital signs.

Anyone who's played a full-scale VR game knows how insanely immersive and real this tech already feels. And the next step is to find a way for people to actually feel virtual objects. The shapeShip tabletop unit developed at Stanford is the latest device designed to bring the sense of touch to VR.

​When you're practising yoga in a class, there's an instructor who can guide you through each pose. When you're doing it on your own, however, you pretty much just have to hope you're getting it right. That's why Nadi X "smart" yoga pants were created – they're like an instructor that you wear.

Facebook has written a check for some Purdue College research into haptic technology that can not only alert you to new messages through your skin, but read them too.

To try to add a bit more physical feedback to VR, Disney Research has unveiled a prototype wearable device it calls the “Force Jacket,” which uses a set of inflatable bags to simulate pressure and force in time with visuals.

French startup Aurasens is taking CES music lovers on a "visceral, trans-sensory journey" in Las Vegas this week as it launches its high-end audio recliner. The hi-fi chair uses haptic touch points to gently massage the listener as music plays through a pair of headphones.

Some day, even stopping for a rest on a bench at Disneyland might be an attraction, thanks to a mixed reality prototype called the Magic Bench. Designed to make AR more of a group activity, it allows people to interact with animated characters in 3D space, and even feel them through haptic feedback.