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Remember the scene of the male and female protagonist dating in the virtual world in “The Number One Player”?

The woman only gently touched it, and the man felt a “current” in the blink of an eye.

He has been stupid enough to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world.

Although the VR device in the movie is no longer fresh, the touch seems to be very sci-fi. It seems that it is difficult to achieve 10 years and 20 years of research.

But now, we may not have to wait that long.

Researchers from City University of Hong Kong & Northwestern University use a set of skin patching systems that not only let you feel the touch of distant relatives, but also allow you to touch distant relatives.

Of course, people and things in VR games can feel it.

Do you have a bold idea to see here? Is there a game in Japan called VR?

And this device does not require complicated patch cord power supply, it only needs wireless signal to drive, and the radiation intensity is within the scope of FDA regulations, so there is no need to worry about safety.

This research is also on the latest issue of Nature.

Wireless power control for millimeter-level tactile feedback

The skin is a magical biological system with a surface full of sensors, and the physical contact between humans and the outside world depends on them.

In order to make the skin feel the touch, the team developed hundreds of functional components, the most central part is the actuator.

Each actuator weighs only 1.4 grams, 12-18 mm in diameter (nail size) and 2.5 mm thick. It consists of two parts, one is a copper coil sealed inside the acrylic base, and the other is a permanent magnet mounted on the polymer.

When a current is passed through the coil, the magnet vibrates at the same frequency as the current, applying pressure to different points on the skin, allowing millimeter-level tactile feedback at different locations, and the skin feels tactile.

In their research, 32 actuators are arranged in a single piece of skin and can be controlled separately to produce more refined tactile feedback.

These components are housed in a thin layer of synthetic rubber covered by silica gel with a thickness of 3 mm.

Not only is it breathable, but it can be reused, even if it is bent or even twisted, it will not affect the function.

More importantly, this component also has chip-level integrated circuits and antennas that allow it to be wirelessly controlled and powered.

This solves the embarrassing situation that all current devices are tied by wires.

According to the data disclosed in the paper, the transmission range of wireless signals is one meter in diameter, which is 10 times larger than the most advanced technology range.

Moreover, the energy of the actuator is not too high, only 1.75 milliwatts of power, can cause a significant vibration feeling.

In general, DC-driven actuators require approximately 100 milliwatts of power to produce the same level of vibration.

With this device, the scope of application is not limited to the VR field.

In the paper, they also tested the system to further demonstrate the possibility of this technology in practical applications.

In the first experiment, a girl and grandmother made a video call. She only needed to touch the screen, and the grandmother could sense the granddaughter’s touch through the device on her arm.

In the second experiment, a man with a lower arm amputation attached a piece to the upper arm and grasped the object with a prosthetic arm with a robot. He felt that he was actually grasping the object with his hand.

In the third experiment, when a person plays a fighting game, he puts a piece on the body. When his character in the game is attacked, his corresponding part can also feel the same.

34 collaborators, two from China

This study has a total of 34 authors across mechanical engineering,Materials science, biomedicine, physics and chemistry.

According to EurekAlert, it took the entire team about two years to develop the device.

There are two joint works, namely Yu Xinge and Jie Zhaoqian from the City University of Hong Kong.

In addition to the City University of Hong Kong, their research units are Dalian University of Technology and Northwestern University.

Yu Xinge is currently an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology in 2009.

2009-2015, Ph.D. in the joint training of Northwestern University and University of Electronic Science and Technology.

Xie Zhaoqian, graduated from Dalian University of Technology in 2013, and later engaged in postdoctoral research at Northwestern University. Now he works as a researcher at City University of Hong Kong.

There are also two authors of the study, Professor Huang Yonggang and Professor John A. Rogers of Northwestern University.

Other researchers are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Arizona, the University of Bristol, Tsinghua University, and Shandong University.

Research is still in progress

First of all, human skin can detect sub-millimeter touch, but the actuators in the device are 12-18 mm in diameter and 2.5 mm thick, compared with a small gap.

They proposed a way to miniaturize the device, after the simulation test, theyIt is believed that the diameter and thickness of the actuator can be reduced by a factor of ten and thirty.

Secondly, each actuator is driven by a current of approximately 5 mA, which is higher than consumer electronics and there is no way to dissipate heat better, which can affect performance and user experience.

Finally, although the optimized actuator only requires 1.75 milliwatts of power, the overall power consumption is large. To continuously and wirelessly control the platform, there are still many difficulties to overcome in practical applications.

But even if there is a lot of room to be perfected, this study on Nature also depicts a new possibility:

The real VR experience is no longer just in the Spielberg movie, isn’t it?

Not just science fiction movies, it will have a huge impact on the development of the entire VR industry.

At least from the interactivity of VR games, it will rise to a new level.

Speaking of this, I really have to mention the VR games of the island country next door, joined this technology, then what? What do you think?

Thesis link:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1687-0

Reference link:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases_ml/2019-11/cuoh-5112019.php