Slashdot Mirror
Cybernetic System to Allow Physical Interaction
Ant writes "Wired News reports researchers have developed a cybernetic system to allow physical interaction over the Internet. The system allows touching and feeling of animals or other humans in real time, but it's first being tried out on -- chickens. The Touchy Internet Built was by a wacky group of researchers at the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore (NUS)."
Researchers ... are cybering... chickens??? Thank god the DARPA money is going to the right things.
I already interact with myself while I watch cyber girls on my computer. Man, this ain't news!
Dunno if I'd go that far...
Physical interaction with humans over the internet? This sounds like many a Slashdot reader's idea of a wet dream.
When showcased at the Version 05 arts festival in Chicago, viewers suggested using the system for internet sex. Experts dismiss the whole idea as silly.
"Current haptic displays typically allow a user to interact with a virtual or remote environment through a tool," says Allison M. Okamura, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. "Hence, the systems feel like you are poking at the world through a stick. A major challenge is providing the user with more delicate tactile sensations, such as feeling that occurs when one draws her finger over a rough or smooth surface. This kind of realism is difficult to achieve."
Who wants to touch someone's cock online?
God spoke to me.
Having tired of my favoritest pass time on the internet - hunting live animals with a remote control rifle...
I can now indulge my 2nd favorite over the internet: feeling chickens.
I can hear my non-nerd friend now: "But why don't you get a real chicken to feel?"
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
here's your cue, /.'ers. every corny line about porn on the internet ever seen, here's your chance to post it - free karma for all
-- james
teledildonics
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Some doctors are already using robots remotely to diagnose patients... In Alaskan remote communities, something like this can eventually provide remote robotic surgery with sensory feedback...
This brings a whole new meaning to kicking someone off an IRC channel.
All of this just means they need to give the technology to the porn industry. They'll have it suitable for online sex in no time, and charge an arm and a leg for it. Or, if they can't get it beyond "poking people with sticks," they'll just open up an S&M site with it.
...'new'?
There have been 2-way haptic feedback systems since the early 90's (and probably before that but I am not personally aware of them.)
I personally used a 20+ sensor cyberglove on an SGI IR that was networked to another modified cyberglove in order to transmit tactile response both to and from the target (in this case a rubber ball.) That was in 1997.
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He's actually trying to be constructive.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
you /. one of these devices?
Can't help but envision the future where your touch device is something you can have groups of people collaborating in all at once.
Porn aside, since human touch can be one of the most positive feelings, maybe this will have a good impact on society.
Now que in the "rub and tug" jokes.
So they've managed to wire up a force-feedback VR system that can transmit IP packets. All things considered, I'm more amazed that this is even interesting, in this day and age. Given the usual speed of technological development, VR should be about at the point of regular home-use. We should be seeing virtual TV remotes inside of datagloves or Internet commerce through meaningfully browsable stores. (Actually, that was tried at one point. Not very successful, but the bandwidth really wasn't there.)
In other words, we should be a bit beyond the chicken stage.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I just hope they're able to effectively keep hackers out. Imagine what a goatse troll could do if they were able to hack into a virtual sex session. Wow, that thought just made internet sex a lot less appealing.
I personally used a 20+ sensor cyberglove on an SGI IR
Yeah, but did you use it on a chicken? I think all of you naysayers are missing the truly original, patent worthy use of this technology "...on a chicken".
I'm going to invent reading email "...on a chicken".
All that time and money down the drain when we could have found out what yoda and chewbacca smelled like. Touch technology ... ridiculous.
... viewers suggested using the system for internet sex. Experts dismiss the whole idea as silly.
Partly becasue it was a debasement of technology, but mostly because they never got invited to those sorts of parties.
choke the chicken....
Because you have to wonder: how do the machines know what Tasty Wheat feels like? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tasty Wheat feels like actually feels like oatmeal, or tuna fish. That makes you wonder about a lot of things. You take chicken, for example: maybe they couldn't figure out what to make chicken feel like, which is why chicken feels like everything.
"Nobody writes jokes in base 13." - Douglas Adams
People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.