14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at Disney have created something that may or may not catch on, depending on how much people think that the feel of their world should be different.
Disney has taken a different approach to the development of haptics, or touch interfaces: rather than try to give objects the ability to simulate a different texture, it will give the human body the ability to feel differently.
Called REVEL, the wearable technology sends an imperceptible electrical signal through the user's entire body.
When the person touches something, be it a computer screen, a wall, plastic, wood, furniture or even other people, an effect known as “reverse electrovibration” comes into play.
Said effect creates an oscillating electrostatic field around the skin. If the object being touched shares the same electrical ground (copper emulsion included in wall paint, for example), an electrostatic force modulates the friction between the finger and the object, simulating the feel of a texture.
"Sight and sound are important, but we believe the addition of touch can create a really unique and magical experience," says Olivier Bau, lead researcher on the REVEL project.
"Instead of making objects and devices simulate tactile effect, we are changing your feeling of the real world. We are altering human perception. The rest of the world remains passive."
Basically, the researchers have created some sort of device that changes what things feel like, depending on the shape, amplitude and frequency of the signal.
We suppose it will be useful when using a touchscreen device or some such, but we can't help but question the wisdom of fooling the body in regards to everything else people interact with. After all, “altering human perception” is just a nicer way of saying that the technology confuses your brain (and we already have alcohol for that) or even that it causes hallucinations (and there are, unfortunately, drugs that do that).
At least there is no danger of brain damage or addiction. Or at least we hope there isn't.
"The sensations at this point are carefully designed and range from feeling virtual pebbles, to fine textures, such as sand, to glassy or rubbery materials, to larger spatial geometrical patterns such as grooves, bumps," he says. "A lot more work needs to be done to design and investigate really rich tactile sensations with this technology."