Can phone calls, FaceTime and Skype conversations substitute the physical touch of your partner in long distance relationship?
Can phone calls, FaceTime and Skype conversations substitute the physical touch of your partner in long distance relationship?
Good news! Scientists have designed a pair of interconnected gloves, where the fingers 'flex' in one glove and the actions are transmitted to a remote partner wearing the other.
Study author Carman Neustaedter from Simon Fraser University in Canada said, ?It's all about feeling connected.?
Researchers have designed a pair of interconnected gloves called ?Flex-N-Feel?.
When fingers 'flex' in one glove, the actions are transmitted to a remote partner wearing the other. The glove's tactile sensors allow the wearer to 'feel' the movements.
?Users can make intimate gestures such as touching the face, holding hands, and giving a hug,? Neustaedter stated.
"The act of bending or flexing one's finger is a gentle and subtle way to mimic touch,? Neustaedter added.
To capture the flex actions, the sensors are attached to a microcontroller and provide a value for each bend and are transmitted to the 'feel' glove using a WiFi module.
The sensors are also placed strategically on the palm side of the fingers in order to better feel the touch.
A soft-switch on both gloves also allows either partner to initiate the touch.
Other projects also focus on shared experiences, including a virtual reality video conferencing system that lets one "see through the eyes" of a remote partner, and another that enables users to video-stream a remote partner's activities to a long-distance partner at home (called Be With Me).
"The focus here is providing that connection, and in this case, a kind of physical body," Neustaedter explained.
"Long-distance relationships are more common today, but distance don't have to mean missing out on having a physical presence and sharing space," says Neustaedter. "If people can't physically be together, we're hoping to create the next best technological solutions."
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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