A new kind of wearable synthetic skin for use in virtual reality environments has been developed:
They published the study in Soft Robotics, describing soft skin with a thickness of less than 500 mm. They equip the skin with pneumatic actuators that will make you feel you are touching something real and not just the simulation of an electronic aperture engine that really feels like a real thing at all. The artificial skin also has integrated sensors which transmit the data used to modulate the pressure. The scientist says that this is the first time that such an excellent result has got.
According to the report, "their SPA skin is a multi-layer system that can easily be applied as a simple, wearable two-way interface to feel contact and feedback." Whether you wear gloves or an artificial leather suit, the product would allow you to feel a proper surface in the virtual reality world.
In his 2008 novel, science fiction writer Stephen Baxter described Headspace, a virtual reality environment, in his 2008 novel Flood:
Maria had gloves and a headset, and she would hear the child laugh, feel her when her avatar hugged her, a ghostly presence through the pads on her fingertips.
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