Disney demonstrates chair with detailed haptic feedback

Together with an American university, Disney has developed a chair that provides the user with ‘surround haptics’. For example, the seat allows players of racing games to feel bumps in the road and skidding of the car.

Researchers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh have teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University to develop a chair that is equipped with ‘surround haptics’, writes Gizmag. The chair is equipped with a network of vibrating ‘actuators’, which the researchers believe can provide more detailed feedback than the pulsating vibrations of game controllers, for example.

The researchers claim that their surround haptics technology can give the user the feeling that a finger is being run across their back or that insects are walking on their skin. To achieve such effects, the researchers have developed an algorithm that allows the actuators to work together. In this way, the illusion of feedback can be created from anywhere in the backrest.

The chair is being shown at the Siggraph 2011 conference, currently being held in Los Angeles, using a modified version of the Split/Second racing game. In this version it is possible to feel road bumps, braking, acceleration, collisions and skidding of the car.

According to researcher Ivan Poupyrev, the surround haptic technology can also be used in clothing, sports equipment or mobile devices and the feedback can be received on any part of the skin. The field of application is not limited to games, but blind people and users of heavy machines could also benefit from the haptic feedback technology.

The red line illustrates the feedback the ‘actuators’ give to the user