News Engineers develop skin-stretching controller

Engineers at the University of Utah have developed a new form of haptic feedback: skin-stretching.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/03/06/skin-stretching-controller/1

 

Looks interesting.

 

Interesting indeed, I'd like to see more haptic feedback research on touchscreen devices to get them up to the feedback of buttons.

 

I would love to try this out. I hope they do get it in to production as they intend.

 

Interested

 

that sounds really cool.. I thought you were talking about mouth skin or something though- like whaatt!

 

Don't understand this.

How can some thumbsticks give you any feedback similar to crawling along prone or make you feel like your in an ocean?

And, when you get shot, they what? Push back at your thumbs?

 

It's likely similar to how vibration works for relaying information. It's not something which will make you feel exactly what's going on, but it can provide a sensation which is at least vaguely similar so the player's mind can relate it to the real thing. For example, crawling along the ground may involve some sort of alternating sensation on each thumb to emulate the character's arms and legs shimmying forward and back. Swimming in the ocean may be a more random and sporadic feel to emulate the effect of waves on the character. What's important is that the player can mentally relate a certain feedback with a certain in game event.

It's also almost certainly not mutually exclusive with vibration, so the two can be used together to provide a wide range of unique feedback for various situations.

 

Think I caught haptic after a drunken night out once.

o7

 

Woohoo I can join the Fantastic Fou.........oh, just read the headline, bummer.