Magic touch: haptics at the man-machine interface

In the past 30 years progress in visual, imaging and screen-based technologies has been quite astonishing. We have gone from great hulking cathode ray tubes to mobile devices that capture and display high-defi nition video. But it could be argued that these technologies have reached a plateau. It is interesting to note that 3D cinema and television has been something of an anti-climax, not quite delivering on the immersive experience promised. By focusing solely on the visual senses for so long, have we neglected the subtle but important infl uence of other human perceptions — namely touch? Certainly a rapidly growing body of researchers worldwide and a number of companies believe that to be case and are implementing ‘haptic technologies’ in a broad range of applications.

Of course, the field is not a new one and the ‘touch revolution’ has been promised before. But previous attempts have tended to bolt on crude force feedback without a proper consideration of why exactly it is there and what function it should be aiding.