IEEE Spectrum: Jacket Lets You Feel the Movies

The jacket contains 64 independently controlled actuators distributed across the arms and torso. The actuators are arrayed in 16 groups of four and linked along a serial bus; each group shares a microprocessor. The actuators draw so little current that the jacket could operate for an hour on its two AA batteries even if the system was continuously driving 20 of the motors simultaneously.... More

BBC: Risk-free virtual anaesthetics

The advance comes at a time of growing concern over patient safety, and new EU legislation limiting working hours in hospitals.

In addition, some patients cannot be completely anaesthetised during spinal procedures, for fear of post-operative complications.

Such problems make the use of surgical simulators all the more vital. ... More

Job:Medical Simulation Corporation Seeking Controls/Haptics Engineer

Controls/Haptic Engineer

Medical Simulation Corporation is seeking a Controls/Haptics Engineer to join our high-caliber development team. You will help create the tactile virtual reality component of cutting edge simulations of medical procedures used to train surgeons and other medical staff.

About Medical Simulation Corporation: Denver, Colorado

Medical Simulation Corporation (MSC) develops high-tech simulation training programs used by doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. We have been doing this for more than 10 years and are the worldwide leader in our area of simulation training. Because of this, we are increasing the size of our development team in order to provide more training programs to our customers.

Our simulations run on high-end Windows PCs with custom hardware as well as dedicated control system computers. They are developed in-house using C++ and Simulink along with other MathWorks tools. Medical procedures are taught using simulated x-ray fluoroscopy and include haptic feedback from human bodies through medical tools such as catheters. Clinically realistic case development with complications creates an immersive and compelling environment fostering rapid learning for medical professionals.

Essential Duties include

·Design and program controllers used in the haptics interface

·Design, program and manage the haptics computer

·Create new and original haptic effects by modeling the behavior of devices in the human body

·Determine, setup and test new actuators and sensors to optimize performance

·Evaluate/redesign current hardware and motor controls to improve costs, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability and quality

·Participate in the design of electronic packaging and connector schemes utilized in the product line

·Investigate, develop and implement auto-tuning capabilities of the haptics system

·Provide electrical/haptics/mechanical support of field events and systems

Required Education/Work experience

Doctorate degree in Control Systems or in Electrical Engineering with at least four (4) courses in Control Theory, OR
Masters degree in Control Systems or Electrical Engineering plus 2 years work experience in Controls or Haptics
Medical Simulation Corporation offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefit package including 401k, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, FSA and a range of optional benefits.

Please submit your resume to careers ____ at ____ medicalsimulation.com. Include Controls/Haptics Engineer in the subject line of your email and list where you read about the position. Also, please check out our website at www.medsimulation.com.

First issue of Haptic Times - news on latest designs, markets, methods, research...

 

READ THE ENTIRE ISSUE HERE NOW.


EXCERPTS:

Momentum: The Mobile Phone Market
Haptic phones are proliferating and sales are brisk, but the wireless telecom industry has only just started to develop and leverage the power that haptics can provide to the mobile phone user.

At Large: Visteon and 3M at Work
One of the most promising applications for haptics is in the car interior where the sense of touch helps compensate for noise and the need for much focused visual attention.

Feedback: Haptic Types and Tools
You’re interested in knowing more about haptics so you’ll know when to recommend it. Here’s a quick overview on haptic response capabilities, components, and tools.

Immersion: Support for Your Haptics Research
Haptics research has never been more important. Immersion can help you expand the scope and reach of your haptics research with haptic smartphones and touch monitors.

Research: Touchscreen Smartphones Get Smarter
This smartphone study compared use of a mechanical keyboard (Palm Treo 750) to touchscreens both with and without haptic feedback (Samsung i718), both in a laboratory and while riding on a subway train. Find out what was learned about haptics and user performance.

SiliconFen:NXT adds feel to touchscreens via haptic technology and Japan’s Nissha Printing Co

NXT's SoundVu technology enables a transparent touch panel to become a loudspeaker. The technology uses a piezo actuator to introduce bending waves into the touch panel to create a loudspeaker. If appropriate signals are applied it is possible to "feel" the vibrations on the screen, allowing haptic feedback as well as high quality audio directly from a suitable touchscreen... More

NY Times: Get Along Without a Pinkie? It’s Tougher Than You Might Think

The pinkie, the humble fifth finger, has long been viewed as a decorative accessory, something to extend daintily from a wine glass. So what would you lose if you didn’t have one?

“You’d lose 50 percent of your hand strength, easily,” said Laurie Rogers, an occupational therapist who is a certified hand therapist at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington. She explained that while the index and middle fingers function, with the thumb, in pinching and grabbing — zipping zippers, buttoning buttons — the pinkie teams up with the ring finger to provide power... More

MSNBC: Not all touchscreen phones are created equal

...Beyond resistive and capacitive touchscreens, new technologies are beginning to enter the marketplace.

“Haptic” feedback, where a physical sensation is used to enhance the touch experience, is already featured in smartphones such as LG’s Dare and the Samsung Instinct. With haptic feedback, a slight vibration from the screen signals when a touch command registers.

Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry Storm haptic touchscreen uses the entire screen as a clickable button.

The Storm “provides the best haptic experience of any touchscreen device at the moment,” said Stuart Robinson, Strategy Analytics’ director for handset component technologies. ... More

NY Times:Primal, Acute and Easily Duped: Our Sense of Touch

Imagine you’re in a dark room, running your fingers over a smooth surface in search of a single dot the size of this period. How high do you think the dot must be for your finger pads to feel it? A hundredth of an inch above background? A thousandth?

Well, take a tip from the economy and keep downsizing. Scientists have determined that the human finger is so sensitive it can detect a surface bump just one micron high. All our punctuation point need do, then, is poke above its glassy backdrop by 1/25,000th of an inch — the diameter of a bacterial cell — and our fastidious fingers can find it. The human eye, by contrast, can’t resolve anything much smaller than 100 microns. No wonder we rely on touch rather than vision when ... More

NYAS:Hooked on a Feeling: The Science of Touch

Nov 3, 2008 • 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St. at Barclay St., 40th fl.
click here for more information

Speakers: Ranulfo Romo, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Kun Chang, filmmaker.

Of all our senses, touch is the most difficult to fathom doing without. On the most basic level, somatosensory perception is crucial to human life and survival. It also plays an important role in our emotional development, creation of memories, and connecting with our environment. While other senses let us perceive our environment from a distance, the sense of touch puts us in physical contact with our surroundings to acquire information.

At this event, neuroscientist and sensory perception expert Ranulfo Romo explains the science of the sense of touch and filmmaker Kun Chang shares stories from his award-winning documentary, Touch: The Forgotten Sense.

Ranulfo Romo is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar at the Institute of Cellular Physiology, National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico City. His lab combines psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments to investigate the neural codes for perceptual discrimination. Current research in his lab aims to understand how sensory experiences arise from activity of brain circuits.

Born in Denmark, Kun Chang earned a diploma in design for film and television at London's Royal College of Art. He has worked on films including Luc Besson's The Fifth Element and George Lucas's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He directed Seavitamins, a short BBC-produced documentary that explores how the ocean soothes the soul and the documentary Touch: The Forgotten Sense. Released in 2001, the film has been sold to over 120 countries and has aired on Radio-Canada/CBC, Canal D, and the National Geographic Channel. Its French version won the best documentary award at Montreal's Téléscience Festival.

New book: Human Haptic Perception, Basics and Applications

Human Haptic Perception
Basics and Applications
Grunwald, Martin (Ed.)
2008, IX, 676 p. 238 illus., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-7643-7611-6
A Birkhäuser book

Click here for chapter excerpts.

The book has just been printed, preorders are available from this website or from major online book sellers.

From the publisher's website:

Active touch perception – also known as haptic perception – is of primary importance for the planning, direction and execution of everyday actions. This most complex of human sensory systems is gaining ever more importance for various scientific disciplines as well as practical industrial applications.

In this book an international team of authors presents a comprehensive collection of writings on both aspects of research on human haptic perception.

After a theoretical and historical introduction, the chapters are dedicated to neurophysiological basics as well as the psychological, clinical and neuropsychological aspects of haptic perception. Results of studies into human haptic perception in the fields of virtual haptics and robotics are also included. In the final section, contributions from the applied and industrial sectors illustrate the practical uses of knowledge about the human sense of touch.
This easily accessible textbook gives not only students, scientists and those with prior knowledge, but also interested laypersons insights into a fascinating area of study that is constantly discovering new challenges and presenting innovative solutions.

Written for:
Students and researchers from neuroscience, psychology, medicine/physiology; companies involved in haptic research, e.g. robotics, electronic industry, automobile development, textile industry

The first issue of IEEE Transactions on Haptics is out

Check the table of contents ... here

Information week:Haptics in the Google phone

1. Capacitive touch screen: The G1 has a capacitive touch screen just as the iPhone does. This means it is very responsive when you touch it. It also has haptic feedback, to let you know you've performed certain actions.

2. Easy-to-Use Interface: The user interface was intuitive at first blush, and didn't leave you wondering, "Why did they do that?" The layout was easy to understand, and simply made sense.

3. Great Google services integration: Seriously, it couldn't be any more tightly knit together. Gmail, Google Map with Street View, Google Search, YouTube and others are built into the UI and work great. ... More