I can already see the Illusion company in Japan incorporating this tech into their new games :/
Improved haptic is nice, but
too good to be true for the 3D visuals:What this means is that an array of ultrasound generators creates a variety of shapes -- such as cubes and spheres -- which the user can feel when they place their hand above the array. By itself, of course, it can't be seen -- but the team has used a container of oil to show how the shapes work.
The video is a
mock up showing what you can feel with the air pressure. But it's not a real hologram, just bumpy air that you can touch. In a sense that's not that amazing. Any fan will do the job: that's totally haptic already! The smarts is in directing the air molecules precisely in 3D to make shapes. But we're not actually getting 3D visuals for free as part of the deal, unless you want to stick your hand in a bucket of oil
The only other choice is to combine this with the
laser / plasma holograms. But i don't want to think about touching one of those (needs high powered lasers that turn the air itself into plasma). Might as well shake hands with a lightsaber.
Some articles seem fatally confused about whether it's visible or not:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141202123846.htmSee it, touch it, feel it: Researchers use ultrasound to make invisible 3-D haptic shape that can be seen and felt
An
invisible thing that
can be seen? They've really outdone themselves.
a method has been created to produce 3D shapes that can be felt in mid-air.
So it is just a shape then, not a hologram? I hesitate to think how fast air molecules would have to be vibrating to be visible?
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
So it can be felt, but it makes floating shapes that can be seen? Why do they demonstrate by pointing it at oil? And notice the oil demonstration
does not have half a sphere coming out of the oil.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.
So it's added to 3D displays now? That makes more sense.
"In the future, people could feel holograms of objects that would not otherwise be touchable"
Why in the future? if it can be seen already?
Yeah, the language is so goddamn confusing and keeps contradicting itself. My guess is the video
is a mock-up, and the reporters are terminally confused about what this does.