Emergent Media & Markets Blogs: Haptic Technology

I have always been fascinated in other ways people can be immersed in the media that consume. I tend to feel like the medium of film & game are the only medium that immersion can be felt at its full potential, that and TV. Not just in the media we consumer but also technology like this can help doctors as they would virtually be able to reach into a patient's body.

I specifically chose this topic as I believe that in Emergent media, this kind of technology would best suit as the go-to technology to attract and amaze an audience. Personally, it feels like it is the next up in terms of

Research into this has lead me to seeing that development into this tech has already been in place. It has been called Haptic Technology or Touch Feed Technology.

What does the term Haptic mean and what is its relation to technology?

The article written by William Harris from HowStuffWorks.com states "Haptic is from the Greek "haptesthai," meaning to touch. As an adjective, it means relating to or based on the sense of touch. As a noun, usually used in a plural form (haptics), it means the science and physiology of the sense of touch. " (Harris, 2014).

How the feel of touch is related to technology is one of the many questions that has been in development as "Since the 1980s, computer scientists have been trying to answer these questions. Their field is a specialized subset of haptics known as computer haptics." (Harris, 2014).

An example of its relation to technology would be on a Nintendo Wii, you could be playing a game of tennis with someone from across the world. Both of you can perceive the ball coming towards you, using the controller (haptic device) you swing at the ball and the device allows the user to feel the impact of the ball with regards to how hard the user swings it. This is an example of the promise that touch feed technology brings. One of the more basic examples anyway.

The University of Bristol have found ways this profound technology can create immersion in the surgical field as Futuretimeline.net reports that "New research by the University of Bristol, using ultrasound, has created a virtual 3-D haptic shape that can be seen and felt in mid-air. This breakthrough, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues at the university's Department of Computer Science, could improve the way 3-D shapes are used and function as an important new tool in certain situations. It could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan, for example, by enabling them to actually "feel" a disease, such as a tumour."(3-D haptic shapes can be seen and felt in mid-air, 2014).