Fun With Haptics

“Haptics is a new technology in its early stages. It allows for kinesthetic feedback to users from the computer itself. The problems with it at the moment include, the use of extensive processing power, the need for special equipment (which is often times not very portable), and the sheer amount of complexity. So far, haptics are used in flight simulation, virtual roller coasters, video game controllers, and other various small simulators. This leaves huge room for development.”

This is a small summary I did on haptics a couple of last week (sorry for not updating sooner). Well, remember when I said that there’s huge room for development in haptics? Well, let’s just say that not only is the phone industry, military, and video game industry are looking into it, but also boxing coaches, the car industry, and porn industry as well. I’m not making it up. Well, it was sort of obvious that the sex industry would jump all over this in ways that I need not to describe. But anyways, all sorts of things are happening with haptics. Studies show that it works wonders with boxing. It’s like a coaches dream come true.

“In experiments with arm motions, the researchers found that the suit increased students’ learning rates by up to 23%, and reduced errors by up to 27%, as well as enabling students to learn movements ‘more deeply’ by affecting their subconscious learning of motor skills.“

How do they accomplish this? They use vibrations to guide boxers into the perfect form that their coaches recorded.  I wish they had this for football. Maybe my old team would have tackled better. Moving on, the military would like to use certain vibrations, pulses, and other sensations in their vests to help commanders know the status and actions of their troops to help them make better decisions in battles. Then there’s the use of haptics in driving. Cars can start shaking when people are driving into oncoming traffic or making a wrong turn, maybe even shake somebody awake if they fall asleep driving. Haptics involve reading signals from the human body as well, so it would be possible for cars to detect this. Some of the less critical uses for haptics include the button press sensation on touch screens, because people feel more secure that way. This way we can still make smaller devices without the screens getting much smaller.I’m getting jealous of the new generations, with all the cool technology they have coming their way. That’s what this guy happens to think.

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