Real 3D

By Doug Barney

Engineers are used to building 3D objects that look and act real.Ray tracing gives them proper shading, massive palettes offer realistic color,and GPUs and rendering software give us amazing resolution.

But one stillcannot reach out and touch these things, no matter how well designed orrendered.

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) researchersare hoping to change all that through magnetic levitation or “haptics.” Thesystem, of which 10 prototypes have already been crafted, uses two blocks thatmove the object on screen. As the user moves along the object, shapes, ridges,bumps, and textures are felt through the block.

This is a far cry from my oldPlaystation controller that shuddered every time my Grand Turismo hit thewall.

http://www.msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/haptic_consortium/