Ultrasound Used To Create Haptics That Can Be Touched and Felt

mrspoonsi writes "Bristol University used ultrasound focused to create 3d objects out of the thin air. The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumor, using haptic feedback. The method uses ultrasound, which is focused onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp. "In the future, people could feel holograms of objects that would not otherwise be touchable, such as feeling the differences between materials in a CT scan or understanding the shapes of artifacts in a museum."

Comments

Sexting...

[Matheus]

Just got a whole lot better!

Re:Seriously?

[ArcadeMan]

It took you 33 years to come up with Joe?!

Re:Think of the dogs

[TheRealHocusLocus]

Every time you touch it all the dogs in the neighborhood go nutzo

Tormented hysterical dogs tearing at the flesh of beached whales, spatially confused elephants wandering into your living room.

I'm bored, said humanity. Let us pump tremendous amounts of LF sonic energy into the air.

Beat frequencies from these devices penetrating walls, resonating and combining with one another, infusing odd corners of adjacent rooms, hallways and buildings with whispers and throbbing tones. People will leave these things turned on, unaware or uncaring that beat frequencies and harmonics create lobes around others' beds tormenting people trying to sleep around them.

Arson will be on the rise.
Whole city blocks will burn.
The sound of breaking glass and tearing metal.
Then, all is quiet once again.
Cue crickets.