90-04/Force-feedback From: good@baviki.enet.dec.com Subject: Re: DataGlove and the RealitySim Date: 20 Apr 90 18:42:22 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation There are a variety of force-feedback devices available, such as joysticks (usually in 2-D so far) and robotic arms. However, I'm not aware of any device that you could cleanly integrate into a multi-sensory environment which includes a current-generation head-mounted display. For one thing, they're not portable. People at the University of North Carolina and at MIT have been doing some of the most interesting work in this area. The latest issue of the SIGGRAPH newsletter, Computer Graphics, contains an article by Margaret Minsky et al. on "Feeling and Seeing: Issues in Force Display." It's probably the best article I've seen so far describing current research in force feedback and using the sense of touch as part of the interface to computer systems. (The rest of the issue of Computer Graphics should also be of interest to people reading this newsgroup. It's the proceedings of the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics held in Snowbird, Utah last month, and has a number of interesting things on virtual worlds. Some of the most intriguing items are 2-page summaries of live demonstrations at the symposium. So you had to be there for the full benefit, and I wasn't.) Michael Good Good@Baviki.Enet.Dec.Com