UltraHaptics uses the magic of sound waves to create touch feedback in mid-air

UltraHaptics is creating a new way to touch and feel devices — by removing touch from the equation entirely.

The system, created by researchers at the University of Bristol, creates a series of high-frequency sound waves that exert force on whatever they’re pointed at — including the human hand.

While the technology is still in its early stages, the researchers are already working up models of how it can be used to facilitate mid-air gestures (a la, Leap Motion) and to create tactile information layers over displays.

In the video explaining the technology, the Bristol researchers showed off a U.S. map that generated different levels of feedback to illustrate population destiny. It’s a basic use case, but it shows just how precise and comprehensive UltraHaptics can be.

The University of Bristol team, however, isn’t the only group using technology to mimic the sensation of touch.

Researchers at Disney are trying to use algorithmically generated friction to give device users the sense that they’re touching on-screen objects. The technology artificially stretches the skin of the finger, mimicking the exact forces that allow us to register touch.

Here’s how Disney Interaction Group director Ivan Poupyrev explains the technology:

Our brain perceives the 3D bump on a surface mostly from information that it receives via skin stretching. Therefore, if we can artificially stretch skin on a finger as it slides on the touch screen, the brain will be fooled into thinking an actual physical bump is on a touch screen even though the touch surface is completely smooth.

Source:http://venturebeat.com

Radar reveals massive ice tunnels under Antarctica, but WHO or WHAT created them and WHY?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - It's the stuff of science fiction. Scientists probing beneath the ice sheet in Antarctica discover a complex of tunnels burrowing deep beneath the ground. Why are the there, and more importantly, who or what created them? 

The amazingly huge tunnels were discovered by a British team using an airplane with ground-penetrating radar to look beneath the ice. 

The tunnels are very large, being described as arching 820 feet high, but still far under the depth of the ice sheets that cover Antarctica. At that height, the Eiffel tower could stand inside the channels and a river could flow inside them. 

In fact, a river may be the creative force behind the channels which are thought to be running through the tunnels, carving them out. 

Scientists say they now believe that meltwater flows under the ice through these channels instead of flowing evenly underneath the ice sheets in a continuous layer. By flowing through one spot, they carve out massive caverns under the ice shelves and may play a role in the eventual breakup of the ice.

Researchers now want to see where these channels empty into the ocean, believing they will find massive rivers of freezing water flowing into the ocean from under the ice. 

Since the discovery is new many questions remain but they will certainly form the basis for future attempts at research. 

Source:http://www.catholic.org