Haptics and gaming have gone hand in hand for hundreds of years it sort of feels — well before the Rumble Pak made itself an N64 staple, we vividly recall snapping up a vibration jumpsuit for our Sega Genesis. ‘Course, it was on clearance for a reason. Ali Israr et al. were accessible here at SIGGRAPH’s E-tech conference to illustrate a better big leap in haptics, joining hands with Disney Research so one can showcase a buzzing game chair to be used with Split/Second. The seat shown within the gallery (and video) below cost around $5,000 to concoct, with well over a dozen high-end coils tucked neatly into what appeared to be a snazzy padding set for an otherwise uneventful seating apparatus.
We sat down with members of the research team here in Vancouver, and while the gaming demo was certainly interesting, it’s really just the end of the proverbial iceberg. The outgoing engineers from Black Rock Studios helped the team wire stereoscopic audio triggers to the sensors, with a left crash, right scrape and a head-on collision causing the inner coils to react accordingly. Admittedly, the demo worked well, nevertheless it didn’t exactly feel comfortable. In other words — we will not exactly say we’d be first in line to select such a up for our lounge.
That said, the gaming demo was likely dropped at Vancouver for its ease of understanding, however it was clear that the team’s hoping to license this technology out to be used in way more sophisticated applications. Because of the Disney connection, it wouldn’t surprise us to peer a brand new coaster emerge with highly advanced vibration seats — rather then just buzzing or not, this stuff are in a position to pulsating left to right, intensifying and softening, and otherwise sending shivers up one’s spine. Beyond that, we were told that the crew’s considering both automotive and wearable avenues. Imagine a biking vest that senses when a vehicle’s approaching and pulses accordingly to inform you how far to transport away. How’s a couple of vehicle seat that does likewise when another car encroaches on your lane, or senses that you are falling asleep?
Unfortunately, it’ll probably be a fantastic while before Surround Haptics finds its way into the economic world — , on account that the researchers just tied up the technological loose ends ahead of SIGGRAPH beginning. That said, it’s clear that your next step is interacting with potential business partners, and if we needed to guess, we’d say you may be hearing about these guys at a CES throughout the next five years. Which you can bet we’ll be keeping an eye fixed out.
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