Filed under: Computers Often, when people talk about the future
of user interaction with computers, the go-to reference is
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Minority Report .’ But those dreams of
gesture-based computing find users waving their hands in the air
with no tactile feedback at all, and anyone who has typed on
both an iPhone and a BlackBerry can tell you a little physical
feedback is always welcome. An experimental system being
developed at Gifu University in Japan marries that sort of hand
gesture-based experience with 3-D displays and haptic feedback
to create an experience that more closely resembles manipulating
objects in the real world. The HIRO III requires that you strap
your fingertips into a robot hand, which has fingers that
simulate the texture of real surfaces to provide a sense of
weight to your on-screen interactions. For example, if you’re
running your hand across a jagged surface, the HIRO III will
appropriately recreate that feeling. When combined with a 3-D
display, the experience should be qui