Virtual reality has come a long way when it comes to technology. The display and audio quality has become so great that it’s almost convincingly real. Almost.
Not until a user reaches out with their hand to touch a virtual object. It reduces the overall satisfaction of the experience as you can only roam around a 3d space but not actually feel it.
Immersive VR
The mind-bending visuals and audio successfully enrapture audiences. But the lack of haptic feedback breaks the spell. It is difficult to immerse oneself in virtual reality without feeling or touching inside VR.
VR’s mission is to deliver an experience that takes you someplace else. A fully immersive VR will let users explore virtual spaces using sights, sounds, and touch. Imagine the possibilities of being able to touch and feel an object that only exists in the VR world.
VR And Ultrasonics
Here is where Ultrasonic devices come in. In the last couple of years, technology is being developed and refined to give VR uses the ability to feel a virtual object with their bare hands. It is another impressive and highly anticipated development of VR.
Ultrasound once focused can be manipulated to create patterns of turbulence on the air, generating invisible objects which you can feel and touch. This technology will enable users to touch what they see inside virtual reality.
How It Works
This unique technology has the ability to cast many types of sensations to a user’s skin using ultrasonics. These sensations are then shaped to any form, allowing users to feel like they are actually holding or touching real objects without holding a gadget or wearing gloves.
A small collection of speakers are used to emit the ultrasound. It generates enough force to displace the skin’s surface slightly. Different frequencies of the ultrasound create a vibration on the skin which mimics sensations.
The focused ultrasound can be sculpted and formed to imitate the feeling of touching different shapes or objects. The force field it creates feels like a barrier in the air. This acoustic radiation force field constructs an invisible object that can be touched or felt.
An array of ultrasound points in the air where the sound waves meet producing sound radiation that is strong enough to induce thin wave in the skin as it is reflected. It sets off the tactile sensors making it feel like you are touching something.
Where Can It Be Applied
VR and ultrasonics will revolutionize how users interact with a virtual environment. It will enhance virtual objects by engaging the sense of touch and mimic a physical presence creating really convincing and immersive experience.
Pairing haptic and visual sense will open up opportunities in utilizing and training with VR across various industries.
- Examining Delicate Or Inaccessible Objects
Touching inside VR can let medical professionals explore the inside of the human body. Doctors can interact with VR representation of human organs and use their hands to feel its mass or tumors using haptic feedback.
Museums and the academe can use this technology to let guests or researchers study or handle valuable artifacts inside VR. It will let Museum-goers, researchers, and students touch and feel an inaccessible object with their hands. The would be able to feel its geometry and even texture.
It will enhance the way businesses present and demonstrate designs and prototypes to their audiences. This technology will allow users to interact, hold or touch a product concept, samples or designs inside VR. Audiences would get to feel the shapes and surfaces without it actually existing in the real world
- VR Training
It will forever change the way training is done using VR. Trainees can truly feel and interact with machines or controllers inside the virtual training. They can touch and feel a button, knob, and other objects they see through the displays.
They can physically feel the vibration of a machine or slightly bump into things that only exists in the virtual world. It is a complete immersion into an environment that simulates training and working sites or areas that you can see, hear and touch.
- Gaming
Gamers will get a lot of exciting experiences with VR and ultrasonics. They would not only be able to touch or feel an object physically, but users would also be able to feel rain why staying dry, falling snow, a gentle breeze, grass, and other things.
It can also let gamers experience the physical sensation of being hit by an object or a bullet, albeit very gently. Gamers can rub against surfaces or feel a tug. - VR Keypads or Controllers
An advancement that can help a lot in improving the user interface and input designs for VRs. Typing would be a lot easier having a present sensation of actual keys or buttons with your fingers.
Users feel the objects are they drag it around or tap on something. All of this, without wearing gloves or holding a controller.
Present Limitations
Enabling touching inside VR is still in the first stages of its development. There are many limitations which developers are working hard to surpass.
- Range
The ultrasonic device can only work in short range. It loses power as it grows distance with the focal point or moving the object outside the active region. It works best in 15cm to 50cm distance from the device, as of today.
- Strength
When simulating something solid like a rock, hands will go through the objects as it isn’t dense enough. Users can only feel its shape with their hands but not its weight or hardness. - Hands-Only
Developers have found that the current frequencies work best with only the hands. Other parts of the body have difficulty detecting or sensing some of the vibrations. Plus, the device is only big enough to accommodate the hands.
Conclusion
Ultrasonics has opened a lot of possibilities and opportunities for VR. It can launch VR to greater heights and increase its following. It will also enhance and revolutionize how the industries work with VR tools. This technology is capable of changing how people experience and fully immerse themselves in virtual spaces.
References:
https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/34174214/sasia2014_haptic_shapes_authorversion.pdf
https://venturebeat.com/2016/11/07/ultrahaptics-uses-ultrasound-so-you-can-feel-things-in-vr/
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gadgets/feel-invisible-3d-shapes-with-blasts-of-ultrasound
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/05/ultrahaptics/
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/526651/using-ultrasound-to-feel-virtual-objects/
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/sound-touch-enhancing-ui-and-vr-ultrasound/62097803856459