Haptic Control Technology

The maglev haptic control consists of two bowl shape objects, poweredby electromagnets. Inside these bowls, a joystick floats around with atracking sensor that relays its position back to a Linux Fedora-poweredcomputer. The technology is precise to 2 microns and produces 40newtons of force. One specific demo was the "physics playpen," where avariety of 3d shapes were displayed on screen and users could interactwith them using the joysticks; moving the shapes back and forth betweeneach hand, getting feedback of the collision, and a feel for the volumeand weight of the objects.

Source: gizmodo.comAdded: 14 March 2008