Tag Archives: haptic feedback
PS5 developers explain how the DualSense controller changes gameplay
Teslasuit has a VR glove to go with its full-body haptic suit
Netflix experiment rumbles your phone during shows
Sony envisions ‘clothes’ with haptic feedback for PSVR
DIY Rumble Chair: DerriereShock
Chairs with haptic feedback are nothing new. But they haven’t taken off because they’re usually expensive, not realistic – why would your butt vibrate if you get shot? Plus, the novelty wears off fairly quickly. But a cheap one that you can put together is a different proposition. YouTube star DIYer Rulof Maker will show you how.
Rulof made the chair by soldering a relay switch to a DualShock 3 controller’s rumble motor connection, so that it would also trigger the large vibration motor that he made.
The tricky part of this project is that he made his big vibration motor using molten lead. I’m sure you guys can come up with a safer alternative.
ReFlex Flexible Smartphone: Bend Test This
For years now, display manufacturers like LG and Samsung have been teasing flexible displays by creating mobile devices that can be folded to be more portable. But researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab show us that flexible displays can also lead to novel yet intuitive ways of interacting with devices.
The Human Media Lab’s ReFlex is an Android smartphone with a flexible 720p LG OLED display. The researchers added bend sensors to the phone and created apps that accept bending the device as input. For instance, in the image above a comic book reader lets you flip back and forth by bending. On the other hand, the image below shows a customized version of Angry Birds where you cock the sling not by touching the screen but by bending the phone.
The researchers wisely augmented the new gesture with sound and haptic feedback to make it more intuitive.
I’m not convinced that warping the phone itself is better than touch-based input. Perhaps it would be more suited for smartwatches, because their displays are so small that touching one obscures what’s onscreen. Or maybe the Human Media Lab could make a colored version of its paper-thin tablets.
[via Queen’s University via The Awesomer]
Steam Controller’s Haptic Motors Used to Play Music: Shake It Off
Like most modern controllers, Valve’s Steam Controller has actuators that generate haptic feedback. But YouTuber pilatomic discovered that you can make its motors sing.
In his Steam Community post, pilatomic says he found out how to gain full control of the actuators while looking at how the controller communicated with Steam. To apply his discovery, he wrote a program that plays MIDI files through the actuators. Channel 0 plays on the actuator under the left trackpad and channel 1 plays on the actuator under the right trackpad.
All rise:
Just PC master race things. You can download pilatomic’s program from his SourceForge page.
[via PC Gamer]
Animotus Shape-changing Navigation Device: Compass-nion Cube
Last March, the performing arts group Extant held a unique rendition of the novel Flatland. The installation was set in complete darkness inside a disused church. But the audience members were able to make their way around the set with the help of the Animotus, a haptic navigation device that points to the destination by changing its shape.
Yale University researcher Adam Spiers designed and built the Animotus. The cube’s upper half rotates to point to a direction, and extends forward to give you an idea of how far you need to go in that direction. This allowed Flatland’s viewers to move in the right direction even in complete darkness.
Aside from having the potential to aid the visually impaired, Adam thinks even sighted people might find Animotus useful. It’s less disruptive than looking at a map or listening to directions, and Adam thinks that could encourage sightseers to appreciate their surroundings even more. I think it’s too simplistic for long-distance navigation or even to find your way in winding streets, but I get where Adam is coming from.
[via Yale University via Popular Science]
Ultrasound Haptic Feedback Lets You Feel Virtual Objects: Good Vibes
Virtual reality has reached the point where it can easily fool our vision and sense of depth and balance. But if it’s to be truly believable our sense of touch needs to be indulged as well. That’s the goal of the English company Ultrahaptics. The company is working on a device that allows users to “feel” something that’s not actually there.
Invented by students at the University of Bristol, Ultrahaptics uses an array of small ultrasound speakers to create “a noticeable pressure difference” on a user’s hands, creating the feeling of touching something that’s not really there. The Ultrahaptics device uses a Leap Motion sensor to track the user’s hands. This makes it possible to create simulations that lets you feel the different parts of an object, i.e. it will know if you’re touching the top, side or bottom of a virtual object and respond accordingly.
Ultrahaptics’ Ben Long said that they can improve their device by using more and smaller speakers. I wonder if it’s strong enough to simulate projectiles or hard objects like walls. You can read up on Ultrahaptics at the University of Bristol’s website.
[via New Scientist]