From PHANToM to Haptic Cow: Technologies That Touch Back

Abstract

Peter Singer discusses haptic technologies in his book Wired for War (2009): ‘The Pentagon is pursuing “haptics,” technologies that use the body’s sense of touch as another portal for interfacing, akin to how the blind read Braille or people set their cell phones on vibrate’ (part 1, Chapter 3). By using the many ways in which bodies touch and are touched by their surroundings (as explored particularly in Chapters 1, 3 and 4), haptic technologies enable a more integrated relationship between the operator and the technology:

The most advanced haptic projects in research right now are ‘symbiotic systems,’ such as suits designed for pilots to wear that let them ‘feel’ parts of the plane. Explains their designer, ‘If there’s an overload in one wing, the pilot will feel a vibration, or heat, in his corresponding arm.’ … ‘It will really make a complete fusional relationship between the plane and the pilot.’

(Singer, 2009, part 1, Chapter 3)

Singer is writing specifically about military applications, of course, and there are many other possibilities and uses for haptics. This chapter explores some of these uses and the issues they raise.