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Jacket Lets You Feel the Movies
sp3cialk79 writes "Researchers from Philips Electronics plan to describe a jacket they have lined with vibration motors to study the effects of touch on a movie viewer's emotional response to what the characters are experiencing.
'People don't realize how sensitive we are to touch, although it is the first sense that fetuses develop in the womb,' says Paul Lemmens, a Philips senior scientist who will be presenting research done using the jacket at the IEEE-sponsored 2009 World Haptics Conference in Salt Lake City.
The jacket contains 64 independently controlled actuators distributed across the arms and torso. The actuators are arrayed in 16 groups of four and linked along a serial bus; each group shares a microprocessor. The actuators draw so little current that the jacket could operate for an hour on its two AA batteries even if the system was continuously driving 20 of the motors simultaneously."
Cause I just envisioned someone wearing this jacket in a seedy "adult" theater.
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What ever happened to focusing on the sense of smell for more intimate immersion? I could see that being difficult at the movie theater, especially when watching movies about Orc's and Hobbits, but still - scent was supposed to be the next big thing!
Do not wear during during Die Hard.
This jacket sounds expensive, but the pants are half off!
The single best use of this device would be to constrict and asphyxiate anyone in the cinema who insists on talking or fidgeting or generally disrupting others during the film. I would be especially in favour of its use on disruptive children, of all ages.
May the Maths Be with you!
Reminds me of the 'Feelies' in Huxley's 'Brave New World'. It will probably end up being mainly used in the same fashion. (i.e. for porn)
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Yeah but that's alright, the first movies that implement it will do it the same cheap way they did the 3d in Superman Returns. The jacket will only work for three one minute scenes in the entire movie.
In this economy, won't someone think of the Feel-Around theater employees?
Posterity, my posterior.
A similar jacket may make an interesting game feedback device.
The thump of a bullet hitting your back in a shooter would be nifty directional feedback. A tap on the shoulder in the dark of a horror game could be startling. The grip on your arm of a frightened refugee you're escorting through a combat zone, an opponent trying to tickle you in a fighting game as a distraction. And of course the same feedback scenarios mentioned in TFA, just in games rather than movies.
Of course, the cost would probably relegate such a thing to a niche market, but it'd be fun component t'play around with in a game's design.
I think you're grossly underestimating popular cinema's appetite for overstimulation.
The porn industry is often the first technology adopter. They were doing ecommerce on the web when most businesses were afraid to take CC numbers.
Lets just hide his body