FLINT, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When people think of virtual reality, the assumption is that it can only be experienced through two senses: vision and sound. In the new Kettering University Haptics Lab, however, students work in virtual worlds that incorporate touch as well.
Nicholas Cramer, from Greensboro, N.C., is on the short list of undergraduates in the country who work in the virtual world of touch. Cramer controlled a mobile robot using a haptic steering wheel and pedal as part of his responsibilities in Kettering’s new Haptics Lab.
“The project centered around the idea that there are many situations where we might like to control a robot remotely,” Cramer explained. “It can be very difficult to perceive the environment while doing that,” he said. “The reason we decided to use a steering wheel and pedal was that they are objects that we use every day. We are comfortable sitting behind a steering wheel and because of that we hope to tap into that feeling of comfort and knowledge of driving to lessen the learning curve that would normally be associated with the control of a tele-operated mobile robot.”
Haptics technology allows a user to ‘touch’ virtual objects by using forces, vibrations or movements of the user in simulations. It has a wide variety of practical uses in various industries, including automotive and medical fields and it even has gaming and entertainment applications.
“What made me interested in haptics was the human-computer interaction part of it,” Cramer continued. “For the most part, we think of our communication to computers in the terms of a screen, a mouse and a keyboard. Haptics, though, allows us to communicate with the computer through a completely different way, and that’s just kind of cool no matter how you slice it.”
Cramer recently graduated from Kettering, earning dual degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
Kettering’s Haptics Systems course is one of only a handful of similar courses in haptics offered in universities across the country. Part of the draw of the discipline is its versatility. “Many students are interested in haptics,” said Dr. Mehrdad Zadeh, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “It gives them something to stay with that’s versatile,” he added.
To read more on Kettering’s new Haptics Lab, visit: http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=3124
About Kettering University
Kettering University, in Flint, Mich., is a nationally-ranked STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and Business university and a national leader in combining a rigorous academic environment with rich opportunities for experiential learning and cooperative education and a focus on the learning experience of the individual student. Kettering’s 1,900 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students choose from 14 undergraduate and 9 master’s degrees, plus more than 50 minors, specialties, concentrations and courses of study. Some of Kettering’s fastest growing academic majors are Bioinformatics, Chemical Engineering and BioChemistry. For more information, visit www.kettering.edu.