{"id":13584,"date":"2020-07-24T08:25:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T06:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/making-virtual-objects-feel-real\/"},"modified":"2023-07-04T13:40:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T11:40:03","slug":"making-virtual-objects-feel-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/making-virtual-objects-feel-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Making virtual objects feel real"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>The sense of touch is underexploited in today\u2019s virtual reality systems. EPFL researchers have created soft actuators that simulate the feeling of touching a virtual object.<\/h4>\n<p>For virtual reality (VR) to be truly immersive, the sense of touch must be stimulated. Scientists from the <a href=\"https:\/\/sti.epfl.ch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">School of Engineering<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epfl.ch\/labs\/lmts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Soft Transducers Laboratory<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epfl.ch\/about\/campus\/neuchatel-en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EPFL Neuch\u00e2tel<\/a> have developed HAXELs, very small, thin and fast actuators that deliver a rich sense of touch on fingers or anywhere on the skin.<\/p>\n<p>HAXELs use electrostatic energy to inflate and deflate. They have an outer insulating membrane made of silicone enclosing an inner pocket filled with oil. Each bubble is surrounded by four electrodes, that can close like a zipper. When a voltage is applied, the electrodes are pulled together, causing the center of the capsule to swell like a blister. The Swiss scientists, led by professor Herbert Shea, are already working on integrating a dozen of these actuators into a thin glove. The next challenge for the researchers will be to create the software that will program the feeling and weight of the virtual objects held in the glove.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHAXELs will be combined with another system that actively blocks your fingers from going through the virtual object,\u201d says professor Shea in a <a href=\"https:\/\/actu.epfl.ch\/news\/technology-that-makes-it-feel-like-you-re-touching\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019ll convincingly feel you\u2019re holding a solid object even though your hands are empty. We\u2019ll also be able to recreate the feeling of different materials: you\u2019ll be able to tell whether the object you\u2019re holding is made of wood, plastic or ceramic.\u201d Applications for the new technology range from surgery and teleoperation to video games. The research has been published in the scientific journal <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/adma.202002564\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advanced Material<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sense of touch is underexploited in today\u2019s virtual reality systems. EPFL researchers have created soft actuators that simulate the feeling of touching a virtual object. For virtual reality (VR) to be truly immersive, the sense of touch must be stimulated. Scientists from the School of Engineering\u2019s Soft Transducers Laboratory at EPFL Neuch\u00e2tel have developed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[839],"tags":[922,923,886,931],"class_list":["post-13584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-en","tag-augmented-reality","tag-gaming","tag-rd","tag-virtual-reality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making virtual objects feel real - Greater Geneva Bern area<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/making-virtual-objects-feel-real\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making virtual objects feel real - Greater Geneva Bern area\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The sense of touch is underexploited in today\u2019s virtual reality systems. 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