Tech News and more: Surround Haptics could bring force feedback to vests, coasters and gaming (video)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Surround Haptics could bring force feedback to vests, coasters and gaming (video)

Haptics and gaming have gone hand in hand for centuries it seems -- well before the Rumble Pak made itself an N64 staple, we vividly recall snapping up a vibration jumpsuit for our Sega Genesis. 'Course, it was on clearance for a reason. Ali Israr et al. were on hand here at SIGGRAPH's E-tech conference to demonstrate the next big leap in haptics, joining hands with Disney Research in order to showcase a buzzing game chair for use with Split/Second. The seat shown in the gallery (and video) below cost around $5,000 to concoct, with well over a dozen high-end coils tucked neatly into what looked to be a snazzy padding set for an otherwise uneventful seating apparatus.

We sat down with members of the research team here in Vancouver, and while the gaming demo was certainly interesting, it's really just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The outgoing engineers from Black Rock Studios helped the team wire stereoscopic audio triggers to the sensors, with a left crash, right scrape and a head-on collision causing the internal coils to react accordingly. Admittedly, the demo worked well, but it didn't exactly feel comfortable. In other words -- we can't exactly say we'd be first in line to pick one of these up for our living room.

Gallery: Surround Haptics force feedback chair at SIGGRAPH 2011