Disney takes Virtual Reality up a notch with AIREAL

Gaming companies continue to revolutionize the way people interact with the virtual world with motion tracking devices such as the Xbox Kinect. But, as great as these gizmos are, it still doesn’t provide users with a sense of touch which is crucial in providing a holistic virtual reality experience.

This is why Disney Research came up with AIREAL; “a new low cost, highly scalable haptic technology that delivers expressive tactile sensations in mid-air.” Couldn’t quite grasp what it does exactly? No fuss, here’s a brief video which explains what it does and how it does it:

With the AIREAL, users can now also feel the things they see/hear in the virtual world minus the overly-complicated contraption that we often see in sci-fi movies. But the best part about this invention is that it’s just a piece of the puzzle that the folks over at Disney Research are building.

“One of our long-term visions is to create complete 3D shapes in the air. “Imagine holding out your hand and feeling someone’s face. This will start truly eroding the boundary between real and virtual,” said Rajinder Sodhi, a Ph.D student at University of Illinois and Lead Researcher for the AIREAL project.

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