Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!watcgl!bmacinty
From: bmacinty@mud.uwaterloo.ca (Blair MacIntyre)
Subject: Re: force feedback (was Re: Audio feedback from GUI's)
In-Reply-To: mwtilden@watmath.waterloo.edu's message of Mon, 17 Jun 1991 14: 03:03 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Jun17.153108.25060@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@watcgl.waterloo.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <HALTRAET.91Jun13121041@gondle.idt.unit.no> <9090@gollum.twg.com>
	<EVENSEN.91Jun16200218@husc9.harvard.edu>
	<1991Jun17.140303.11843@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1991 15:31:08 GMT
Lines: 31

>>>>> On Mon, 17 Jun 1991 14:03:03 GMT,
>>>>> In message <1991Jun17.140303.11843@watmath.waterloo.edu>,
>>>>> mwtilden@watmath.waterloo.edu (Mark W. Tilden) wrote:

Mark> In article <EVENSEN.91Jun16200218@husc9.harvard.edu>
Mark> evensen@husc9.harvard.edu (Erik Evensen) writes:
>In article <9090@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes:
>
>   I read once of a virtual reality application for molecule construction.
>   You'd put on your gloves and waldos & be able to move around molecules
>   and try to fit them together.  The feedback for how well they fit together
>   was communicated via the "resistance" experienced in the gloves.  
>
>Does anyone out there know anymore about this?

Mark> The defeater was the cost and clumsyness of the interface however.
Mark> I don't know if any further work was done along these lines.
Mark> Possibly just waiting for 'advances in technology' to make it
Mark> available.

I saw the presentation at Siggraph.  One thing to take into account is
that the prototype was built by canabalizing a 15-20 year old robot arm.
The clumsiness/cost would be affected by this to a large degree.  Well,
perhaps not the cost.

Actually, Mark, I think the software for force-feedback would make a
spiffy real-time project, don't you? :-) 
--
Blair MacIntyre, Computer Graphics Lab
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L3G1
{bmacintyre@{watcgl|violet|watdragon}}.{waterloo.edu|uwaterloo.ca}
