90-04/Force-feedback
From: good@baviki.enet.dec.com
Subject: Re: DataGlove and the RealitySim
Date: 20 Apr 90 18:42:22 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation



There are a variety of force-feedback devices available, such as
joysticks (usually in 2-D so far) and robotic arms.  However, I'm not
aware of any device that you could cleanly integrate into a multi-sensory
environment which includes a current-generation head-mounted
display.  For one thing, they're not portable.

People at the University of North Carolina and at MIT have been doing
some of the most interesting work in this area.  The latest issue of
the SIGGRAPH newsletter, Computer Graphics, contains an article
by Margaret Minsky et al. on "Feeling and Seeing: Issues in Force
Display."  It's probably the best article I've seen so far describing
current research in force feedback and using the sense of touch as
part of the interface to computer systems.

(The rest of the issue of Computer Graphics should also be of
interest to people reading this newsgroup.  It's the proceedings
of the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics held in Snowbird,
Utah last month, and has a number of interesting things on
virtual worlds.  Some of the most intriguing items are 2-page 
summaries of live demonstrations at the symposium.  So you had to 
be there for the full benefit, and I wasn't.)

Michael Good

Good@Baviki.Enet.Dec.Com

