Meet the "Wolverine" That hold the Objects with Virtual Reality

Device named ‘wolverine’ features a system of rods which move through brake based locked sliders, providing the user with the feeling of touching the object in virtual reality.

Wearable haptic interface like this can be used for more than only VR entertainment.

Wolverine is a full sensory immersion and is the final aim for having virtual experiences. From more polygon counts of 3D models to better sound, VR development provide users to see the virtual world as they do in the real life. Haptic feedback is one area for the developers which have been proven tricky for many years. Wolverine is a wearable interface which allows the users to feel any object they are holding in 3d Virtual Reality.

This device was built by Inrak Choi along with his team from Stanford University. As the fingers of the hand move, the system of rods move through brake based locking sliders. When a finger gets in contact with a virtual object, a low power motor stretches and relaxes a slider to jam or release the rods as per the location of virtual object and its dimensions. This instigates the feeling of touching the objects in VR.

This device is not the result of first attempt at this technology nor is it the prettiest. While the device user looks like a wolverine cosplayer on a budget though it differentiates itself from other controllers by being cheap and light in weight. It’s also a step closer to involving & interacting with the virtual world, experiencing the things we cannot usually.

Other controllers along with wolverine may prove beneficial in areas beyond entertainment. In healthcare, for example doctors would use them to plan for better surgeries without even touching a patient. Just imagine the possibilities it brings along so that one can not only hear or see a virtual world but can truly experience it.

Touch Sense to Amputees by New Technology

The researchers have developed a way to give patients having prosthetic limbs, a sense of touch. Not only the science is giving the patients functionality of limbs but also restoring a fundamental sense.

Breakthrough Medicine

Real sensations of touch can be simulated through in amputees by a method discovered by neuroscientists from the University of Chicago & Case Western Reserve University. The study can be reached through Science Translational Medicine. This study is the second publication of this month. He used neuroprosthetic device which mimicked natural touch in amputees & quadriplegic patients. A publication made previously discussed the groundbreaking development of a paralyzed man able to experience a touch through a robotic limb which he could control upon with his mind. Electrode implants in brain’s locomotion control center has shown great success in restoring movement & sensation to the paralyzed man.

The recent study involves same approach for amputees. Every patients involved in the study lost an arm after getting injured majorly. The neural interfaces of the ulnar, median & radial nerves of the arm were implanted by the electrodes- the network where signals would synoptically pass from the hand where it still there.

The learning hand

If you want to create a hand which not fails in an amputee or a quadriplegic patient, one need not only be able to move it but also have a sensory feedback from it. For doing this, we first need to look at how the intact hand & the intact nervous system encodes the data and then to the extent which it can be tried to mimic the same in neuroprosthesis.

The sensing and electrode implants prosthetics created from robotic technology which uses smart learning algorithms which can process various touch locations, pressure levels, the direction as well as the speed of the touch.

New technologies are able to restore functions to humans who have been impaired either by birth or by accident. The improvement of lives is central thrusts in the science which revolutionize how each of us live.

The article is written by Tanuja Dongre, associated with SureVin, one of the leading service providers of BPO, ITES, Skill Development, Digital Solutions & Marketing, Data Enrichment & Management Services and HR Consultancy to our clients.