Haptic Holography/Touching the Ethereal

Abstract

Haptic Holography, was perhaps, first proposed by workers at MIT in the 90s. The Media Lab, headed up by Dr. Stephen Benton, with published papers by Wendy Plesiak and Ravi Pappuh. −1Recent developments in both the technology of digital holography and haptics have made it practical to conduct further investigations. Haptic holography is auto-stereoscopic and provides co-axial viewing for the user.Haptic holography may find application in medical & surgical training and as a new form of synthetic reality for artists and designers.At OCAD's PHASE Lab (Prototypes for Holographic Art and Science Explorations) workers are exploring hybrid forms of augmented reality, that combine haptics, interactivity and auto-stereoscopic imagery.Conventional Haptic environments, while presenting a 3D physics environment, typically provide a 2D visual work/play space. Orienteering in such an environment creates an uncertain spatial relationship for the user.Our group creates 3d models from which we create holographic constructs. The same model is used to create the physics environment. The two models are super-imposed. The result: Holograms you can touch.