Roberta De Carolis Not only sight and hearing, from now on touch can also be "augmented": through a device similar to a plaster, it will be possible to experience sensations such as vibrations, pressure and torsion, in a true immersive reality experience. The prototype was developed by a research group led by Northwestern University (USA)
©Northwestern University via EurekAlert
American researchers from Northwestern University have developed a prototype device that gives wearers the sensation of touch-touch that includes vibrations, pressure, and even twisting. This is a breakthrough that opens a route to immersion for a new dimension in augmented reality.
The thin, flexible, almost-patch-like device rests gently on skin and provides realistic and stimulating tactile feedback. Gaming and VR are all good and well, but the researchers also see opportunities in health care-the device could allow visually impaired people to “feel” their environment or deliver tactile feedback to prosthetic users.
This breakthrough is an advance on previous work, published in 2019, in which the interaction with the skin was pioneered. This newest system conveys touch through a constellation of tiny, vibrating actuators spread over wide swathes of skin, and wirelessly driven in real time.
How it works
Our new miniaturized skin actuators are much more capable than the simple ‘buzzers’ that we used as demo vehicles in our original 2019 paper,” said John A. Rogers, the lead researcher. “In particular, these small devices can provide controlled forces over a range of frequencies, delivering a consistent force without requiring a continuous power supply. One variant can cause the same actuators to provide a gentle twisting motion on the surface of the skin, while adding a vertical force to enhance the realism in the sensations.
This revolutionary device consists of a hexagonal array of 19 mini magnetic actuators that are enclosed in a thin, flexible silicone mesh. All can apply a range of sensations: pressure, vibration, and twisting. It uses Bluetooth to receive environmental data, turns it into tactile feedback, enabling the user to “see” through touch.
It saves energy, despite being battery-driven, through the use of a clever design, in the process keeping the device at two stable positions without any continual energy input.
In practice, the actuators, as they push down, store energy within the skin and inner structure of the device; pushing back up, the device uses a little energy boost to release the stored energy.
For this reason, the patch-like device needs energy only in those moments when actuators are changing their position. Such an energy-efficient design is very important for enabling longer operation on one battery charge.
Testing the device
To test the device for effectiveness, the researchers had healthy participants wear blindfolds to test their ability to avoid obstacles, change foot position to avoid injury, and improve balance.
In one experiment, a participant walked around while his path was obstructed. As he moved to collide with an object-for example-the device lit up in the top-right corner, brightening as the obstacle drew near.
After only a short period of training, participants were able to make real-time adjustments with the device-its behavior in effect replacing actual visual information with tactile ones.
According to the researchers, this kind of sensory substitution provides a primitive but functionally significant sense of the surrounding environment without relying on sight-with its practical value for those with impairments of vision.
Nature published the study.
