Feeling virtual reality at last

« Imagine stepping into a virtual world, walking through an orchard. You want to pick an apple, and when you grab it, you can feel it in your hand, as if it were real. Transforming the world of virtual reality into a truly tactile experience is the aim of the research project carried out by the IRISA laboratory in the northwestern French town of Rennes. Claudio Pacchierotti and his colleagues are specialists in haptic technology, the science that studies touch. Their research is based on two approaches: using haptic devices to trick our sense of touch, and trying to recreate these sensations through contactless haptic feedback, by using ultrasound.