Every holiday season, you can imagine how many people will be “supported” by various displays of affection on the occasion of the upcoming March 8th Women’s Day. In the past, the long-distance love show in the air was just a matter of time. It just passed by looking at it, and we couldn’t see it anyway! I never expected that someone in the textile industry would come to cause trouble!
Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada have developed a Flex-N-Feel glove that can transmit the touch of the other person to the person wearing it. It was like a bolt from the blue…
Each finger of the glove is equipped with a microcontroller, sensors and a WiFi component. When the finger of one glove is bent, a signal is sent to the sensor on the other glove through WiFi to transmit the handshake. touch. Experiencers can more easily understand the tactile signals transmitted by the gloves by making video calls while using Flex-N-Feel gloves. This glove will gradually transform people’s needs from “hearing + vision” to “hearing + seeing + touching”.
The editor went to Taobao, the all-purpose store, to see if there are any similar models. but none. I don’t know if anyone knows the channel, please let me know. (What the hell are all the searches? Does it have anything to do with 4D!)
So what does this 4D glove look like? Let me introduce it below.
First: About the Materials
The tactile design of the glove is the key to simulating the feeling of contact, so the fabric of this glove needs to have two major characteristics. One is that it can imitate the soft texture of human skin, and the other is that it needs to have a certain tightness and thickness to provide intimacy and warmth. feel, if the fabric is too loose and thick, it will absorb much of the vibrating feel generated by the actuator. So the researchers chose a medium-thick knitted fabric with Lycra.
Second: About structure
In the early stages of research, in order to ensure the feasibility of interactive haptics, the researchers first focused on gloves and designed the front and back sides of the gloves respectively. One side is called “flex”, which is used to achieve the bending and holding action; the other side is called “feel” ”, used to simulate skin touch. There is a red button switch on the wrist to receive action signals transmitted through WiFi. When selecting an actuator, it is necessary to test the mapping area from the actuator to the human finger. Since fingers have three phalanges, and each phalanx is wrapped by muscles, the researchers equipped them with three actuators, and after testing the mapping range, they determined to use a pea-sized actuator to adjust the position of each phalanx. The received mapping strengths are essentially the same.
Finally: About Actions
Research has shown that different vibrational touches can be obtained by adjusting the frequency, amplitude, duration and rhythm of vibration. The finger bending motion can also be converted into a vibrating touch, simulating the feeling of another person slowly touching the user’s skin. By designing the vibration waveform and peak value, we can perfectly imitate the feeling of contact and achieve different intensities of touch experience.
Carman Neustaedter, a researcher on the project, said users can use the glove to simulate touching faces, shaking hands and hugging. Couples wearing this glove can send a unique and subtle signal to each other anytime, anywhere. However, this glove can only send signals in one direction, which means that users can only send touch signals in turns. This glove is still in the development stage, and researchers hope to be able to send signals in both directions simultaneously. Moreover, the Flex-N-Feel gloves are just part of a research project, a larger goal is to build a system that can make couples feel like they are in the same room.
After reading this, the editor said that I suddenly felt that my IQ was not enough.
Finally, the editor’s warm reminder: Friends who are interested in 4D gloves have already prepared a boyfriend or girlfriend?
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