At the university of Utah is a new kind of game controller is developed in which haptic feedback through the skin of the thumbs of the player to stretch it. The researchers hope that the additional information the experience more intense.
William Provancher, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the university of Utah, has a prototype of a game controller that gives feedback through the skin of the thumbs of the player. This haptic feedback would be the experience of the player more intense. Provancher has a standard game controller, with additional motors that the two thumbsticks of the controller can move around. The player gives not only information to the game via the thumbsticks, but also receives information back, because the motors in the thumbsticks the skin of the thumb of the player in a certain direction stretch.
The researcher wants players to give feedback, such as the recoil of a gun or the waves beneath a boat. The thumbsticks would also provide feedback as a player against a virtual wall run. They are by Provancher with a red plastic cap, reminiscent of the TrackPoint muisvervanger IBM laptops builds. The researcher hopes that his invention will be used in a new generation of game consoles.
He has, on the basis of the same technique, more prototypes are made. So he built a device that blinds can help navigate through them in a similar way, haptic feedback through the thumb. He built also a system that motorists provide feedback via the steering wheel of their car.