New Virtual Reality Interface Enables “Touch” Across Long Distances | Hacker News Reader

New Virtual Reality Interface Enables “Touch” Across Long Distances

scientificamerican.com

42 pointsvinnyglennon12 comments

No pics in the SciAm article. The Nature article includes pics:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1687-0

EDIT, NOTE: when clicking from inside the SciAm article, the Nature article was displayed. Clicking on the link from HN shows a paywall.

The rapid progress in VR -- the fact that our reality is so amenable to it -- is evidence that we're already soaking in it. Dial up touch interfaces to 11 along with the other senses, and you could convince a baby that it is experiencing reality. If the baby grows up in a VR suit to become a physicist, she could discover the laws of nature in terms of frame rates and pixel densities.

The great challenge of VR science is finding the off button. But then, if we find it, we're just at the start of the same quest again.

Finding the off button isn’t difficult: all you have to do is rip off the uncomfortable hardware that’s clamped to your face.

I’d argue that the “great challenge” is developing a system where the user doesn’t become sweaty or get a headache after a few hours.

I think the op is suggesting that we are all in vr all the time like the matrix.

That's a bit like saying the fact that turtles have very hard shells is evidence that the earth is balancing on a giant turtle.

There were a bunch of movies in the late 90's about reality being virtual (the matrix, the 13th floor, existenz), but somehow it was the one without VR that was the most prophetic (the truman show).

> This stack of electronics, slightly thinner than a mouse pad, culminates in a tacky surface that sticks to the skin.

I love my vr headset, but putting it on is already too much of a hassle to do regularly. Asking me to put something sticky on my hands? Forget about it.

> (...) a wireless patch on the child’s back vibrates in a pattern that matches his mother’s fingers, allowing him to “feel” her physical touch.

As a father, I stopped reading right here. You can't treat your child like this, please don't.

If it can be used for sex it'll spread like wildfire.

Already somewhat of a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics

Obligatory reference to the 1990 FuFMe April fools joke: http://www.easylife.org/fufme/

That is an old joke, so some context may be in order: the name is a reference to the then-common “CU-SeeMe” videoconferencing software: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CU-SeeMe

yep, people are probably already working on it!

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