[Diego] wrote in to let us know about the haptic feedback arm project with which he’s hard at work. He calls it the Vimphin, which is uses the beginning letters from the words: Virtual Manipulator Physical Interface. Instead of a claw, the robot arm has a hand grip that lets you easily move it around. That is unless the virtual model of the arm encounters a dense substance, and then it’s going to be more difficult to move.
The test arm seen above includes several high quality robotic servo motors. You probably know that servo motors have feedback circuits that let them sense their position, and this is what is used to detect when a user moves the arm. This movement is tracked in the virtual 3D environment seen on the screen. In this case, the base of the robot is sitting in a pool of water. When the end of the virtual arm is in open air it’s pretty easy to move. When it dips below the water line the motors are used to increase resistance, simulating movement through a denser substance.
This sounds like a great piece of hardware to have around when the OASIS is finally developed.
pretty cool, you could even use this to tell things aside from density. Things like geometric shapes or even more complex, the -flow- of simulated water or maybe the twisting of a tornado. Granted it has to be able to tell when someone is holding on or it’ll flail about on its own.
It’s a great idea to add some kind of sensor to tell if there’s someone holding the device , thanks!
Here’s another demo we’ve made showing user interaction with a wall of bricks:
http://youtu.be/U8iSLmrlBaM