Tag Archives: DRM

Surround Haptics and Cory Doctorow at Vancouver’s SIGGRAPH 2011

Given that nanotechnology research is based on microscopes that are haptic rather than optical, I find the latest Disney technology, Surround Haptics, being demonstrated at the 2011 SIGGRAPH conference quite intriguing. From the August 8, 2011 news item on physorg.com,

A new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP), called Surround Haptics, makes it possible for video game players and film viewers to feel a wide variety of sensations, from the smoothness of a finger being drawn against skin to the jolt of a collision.

The technology is based on rigorous psychophysical experiments and new models of tactile perception. Disney will demonstrate Surround Haptics Aug. 7-11 at the Emerging Technology Exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2011, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Vancouver.

There have been previous attempts to integrate tactile technologies into entertainment but this latest version from Disney offers a more refined experience. From the news item,

The DRP researchers have accomplished this feat by designing an algorithm for controlling an array of vibrating actuators in such a way as to create “virtual actuators” anywhere within the grid of actuators. A virtual actuator, Poupyrev said, can be created between any two physical actuators; the user has the illusion of feeling only the virtual actuator.

As a result, users don’t feel the general buzzing or pulsing typical of most haptic devices today, but can feel discrete, continuous motions such as a finger tracing a pattern on skin.

The 2011 SIGGRAPH conference started Aug. 7 and extends to August 11. The keynote speaker, scheduled for August 8, was Cory Doctorow (from the Aug. 3, 2011 article by Blaine Kyllo for The Georgia Straight),

Cory Doctorow is an author, activist, journalist, and blogger. As a vocal advocate of copyright reform, he’s got clear ideas about how copyright could work to the benefit of creators and publishers.

Doctorow, a Canadian living in London, will deliver the keynote address at the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference on Monday [August 8] at 11 a.m. at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

He spoke with the Georgia Straight about copyright reform and his Twitter argument with Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, the Conservative MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.

There wasn’t much video of Doctorow’s keynote; this 37 second excerpt is all I could find,