Disney Researchers Add Virtual Touch to the Real World
Researchers at Disney have demonstrated a computer interface that changes the way ordinary, everyday objects feel using a weak electric signal fed through a user's entire body.
Revealed at the Siggraph 2012 conference in Los Angeles this weekend, wearable technology modifies a user's tactile perception of the physical world without requiring him to wear special gloves or use a force-feedback device. Sensations can be induced when the wearer touches a computer screen, walls, furniture, plastic or wooden objects, even other people.
"What is really interesting is that it doesn't require the surface of the object being touched to change, so it could prove flexible and perhaps cheap to implement, although I think it's likely at least a decade away from commercialization."
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