Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a touch-based, or haptic, interface that could allow people to realistically feel textures and shapes of 3-D designs created on computers. The system involves a single lightweight moving part that floats on magnetic fields. Magnetic levitation eliminates the need for mechanical devices, thereby doing away with friction, backlash, jump, sticking, and similar problems created by other simulation tools.
At the heart of the haptic interface is a bowl-shaped device called a flotor, which is embedded with six coils of wire. Electric current flowing through the coils interacts with powerful permanent magnets underneath, causing the flotor to levitate. A control handle is attached to the flotor and a user moves the handle much like a computer mouse, but in three dimensions with six degrees of freedom.
Optical sensors measure the position and orientation of the flotor, and this information is used to control the position and orientation of a virtual object on the computer display. As this virtual object encounters other virtual surfaces and objects, corresponding signals are transmitted to the flotor's electrical coils, resulting in haptic feedback to the user.
