What was the world like a decade and a half ago? Looking back fifteen or so years from today, when the internet was in the era of the dot-com boom, the Web was sternly at 1.0, and, believe it or not, Google was in its infancy then. The world has changed considerably over the past 15 years and the rapid development of new technologies and the unimaginable growth of the internet has forever changed the way we live our lives.
What technology was before has made a big leap to what it is today. A new era of haptic technology has begun and will be dominant in the world in terms of the technology that we use.
What is haptic?
The term “haptic” was derived from the Greek word “hapthesthai”, which simply means sense of touch. Scientists commonly know haptic as the “science of applying tactile sensation to human interaction with computers.” Haptic enables anyone to get the sense and feel of the world around them. In the case of technology, haptic is cleverly able to make any user sense or feel and manipulate the virtual objects within the technology that they are using. This is made possible by a kind of motor called an actuator that converts electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic energy into vibrations. This is achieved with the use and control of software that is capable of determining duration, frequency and amplitude.
Through the use haptic devices, the user can not only feed information to the computer but as well can receive information from the computer into a form of felt-sensation on any part of the body. Simply putting it into layman’s terms, haptic technology empowers anyone to be able to grasp, absorb, and recognize reality inside the computer.
The Next Frontier
There is no doubt that haptic technology is going to be the next frontier in human-computer interaction. Gone will be the days where a user can only feel the vibrations of their phone for alerts and notifications or video game controllers that enable gamers to feel explosions or crashes. Also, pinching or zooming through touch screen devices and experiencing high-definition sounds through headphones, is already becoming a thing of the past.
Haptic technology has turned a dream into reality. Based on studies done, the human body is highly sophisticated in recognizing and responding to textures, vibrations and the like that are directly absorbed by the receptors in our somatosensory system. This is why many technological scientists today are exploring further the world of haptic technology. They believe, that improving physical feedback in consumer technology is important as the world attempts to divide all that is physical and tangible and all that is digital and virtual. There is no question that the world that we know now will not be the same world that we know tomorrow.
The digital world has increasingly changed the way we move and live. Scientists attempting to improve and to make our lives easier are finding that almost nothing is impossible anymore. Haptic technology will make so much possible, just watch, see, and feel for yourself.
