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We know Disney and its Imagineers are all about innovating. They do everything from researching new technology and its uses to designing new games and rides for the parks. Today I’m checking back in with Disney Research, the division that focuses on the former.
A while back I looked at Disney augmenting reality: a fancy word for integrating technology into our life, or in this case, specifically, the park experience. Think of the “Kim Possible” game at Epcot, which reads data on your cell phone to help you move forward through the game.
Now Disney Research is pushing its augumented reality one step forward: it’s adding touch. At first that might not sound that exciting. If augemented reality just means adding dimensions to life via technology, then that’s stuff we do every day: use our cell phones to look up things on the internet, touch our screens to zoom in or out on images, etc.
But this is the Disney Research Lab at Carnegie Mellon University we’re talking about: this is going to be something mind-boggling. In this case, it’s creating interactive screens, like the touch-screens I just mentioned, that can replicate a sense of touch.
You heard that right: a screen that could display an image of fur or water or anything, and then when touched it feels like you’re actually brushing what you’re seeing against your fingertips. Science website Science Codex has the details.
Now I’m sure I’m oversimplifying things, but I’m guessing that the majority of you reading this are with me in not really understanding technical science stuff, so I’ll proceed with how I understand things. The texture effect works via electromagnetic rays. They’re already used in some practical ways for things like the Kinect, which can sense players’ movements.
In this case the electrovibration — which is lower and thus even less harmful than the spark of static electricity you might feel touching something metal –- can be used to track finger movements across the screen. Those vibrations can then be manipulated to cause the sensation of bumps or edges, or changes in texture.
Perhaps I jumped the gun when I suggested touching a screen and feeling water or fur. But that can’t be far behind, right? It’s still insane to think that I could touch a screen that is actually flat, but it could be made to feel bumpy or rough. The same screen could feel rough on one side and smooth on another, as far as I understand, to match any changes on projected image.
The technology has obvious interpretations for museum use, letting users feel on a screen items maybe they couldn’t actually touch, like an animal pelt. I’m sure Disney could find a way to use this in its parks; The Animal Kingdom comes to mind, but it could work in any other number of interactive games. It’s just one more sense with which users could interact in their park experience.
For the curious or technology-minded, Disney Research’s report, including a YouTube video, can be found here.
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*(This image by bark is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
