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VR + Touch sense b/w users
While reading some of the posts regarding muscle/hand stimulation in wearables, the thought crossed my mind: what if VR (which has become more and more popular and cheaper) incorporated touch /feel. To give a bit of background info, new sensors are coming out this year that incorporate hand movement and I'm sure full body movement isn't far off if it's not already in developement:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/17/11021214/leap-motion-hand-tracker-virtual-reality-orion-mobile-vr
Now say you've got a full body motion tracking over VR. Could it be possible to link sensory i/o between users over VR connection?
I.E you could plug into a VR and once online you could either "touch" other users or on a more advanced level of sensory feedback, let them feel through your senses. The last idea may require a more complicated device interfaced with the VR (I'm not sure how you could transmit pain in your muscles , for e
xample, into a sensory signal through the VR to a recipient).
Anyone with any solid ideas on how this could work?
Edit: tesla studios is working on full body haptic feedback, so similar to a TENS unit but for the whole body: http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/06/teslasuit-haptic-vr/
Comments
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I was actually thinking about this and my idea was using vibration on the finger tips with different intensity to demonstrate different pressure. Without giving too much of my idea out for pain I was thinking the shock pens to give a little zap.
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While the above videos provide insight as to what is out there and in developement, I'm looking specifically at the ability to touch other users through VR and also have partial control of their movements (like a real life version of Windows remote assistance).
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As far as "touch" goes, theoretically that's simple enough, just a special skin-tight suit over the parts of the body to be touched, most VR systems would probably just do gloves and sleeves to start. Said suit merely needs to swell in small places to increase pressure on the skin underneath. As for conveying "pain" without actually hurting someone physically, I believe there are drugs that can do that, but i don't believe they're localized enough to simulate say, a pinch or a piercing of the skin anywhere. Alternatively, the sense of "touch" and of "pain" are separate nerves in the skin, so if someone can find a way to stimulate very specific nerves in the skin, that'd be cool. I'd buy it. On a side note, in describing my idea for a suit with tiny "swelling" bubbles in it, got me thinking that I'd like that. I just don't like the idea of the noise generated by an air or hydraulic pump, well, that and the potential size.
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What I find really interesting is the plethora of ideas people have for the suit to skin interface. There are quite a few ways of doing this, and thanks @Jupiter for the "pain" vs "touch" explanation. Are there any other ideas on suit to skin interface, ore more specifically how to stimulate the specific nerves in the skin for pain??
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