Researchers Archives | Page 2 of 2

SIGGRAPH: Disney Creates Air-Based Touch Feedback System

By Chris Castaneda
July 23, 2013

Disney Research has created a haptic, or touch feedback, system that uses bursts of air. The AIREAL system simulates touch, or tactile sensation, in three-dimensional empty space. The haptic feedback can be applied to countless applications and situations, and may offer new ways for users to interact with their devices. The concept is to make touchless experiences, such as motion and gesture control, a physical interaction. This will ultimately give the user a more natural, touch-like perception. Continue reading SIGGRAPH: Disney Creates Air-Based Touch Feedback System

Metal Alloy Could Be Used for 3D Printing of Bendy Devices

By Chris Castaneda
July 15, 2013

A team of researchers at North Carolina State University has created a metal alloy that is liquid, and could be used in 3D printers to make flexible electronic parts and devices. The researchers describe the metal as a “stretchable” alloy, and that many small drops of the alloy can be positioned together in order to create bendable metal sheets and potentially other objects. But it is currently expensive, about 100 times more than 3D printing plastic. Continue reading Metal Alloy Could Be Used for 3D Printing of Bendy Devices

Computing: Researchers Predict Faster-Than-Ever Transformation

By Dennis Kuba
November 2, 2011

IBM researchers are developing SyNAPSE, a new generation chip that can learn from experience, create its own hypothesis and remember. In a simple exercise, it learned to play Pong badly at first, but was unbeatable weeks later.
“As chips such as the one from SyNAPSE become smarter and smaller, it will be possible to embed them in everyday objects,” reports Businessweek. “That portends a future in which the interaction between computer and user is far more natural and ubiquitous.”
As previously reported on ETCentric, Microsoft is working on Holodesk, a 3D user interface that allows one to interact with 3D objects using an Xbox Kinect and an optical transparent display.
Intel’s 2020 CPU hopes to communicate with algorithms and other machines as well as “understand what it means to be human.”
“Computing is undergoing the most remarkable transformation since the invention of the PC,” said Intel CEO Paul Otellini. “The innovation of the next decade is going to outstrip the innovation of the past three combined.”