From cube-lovers-errors@oolong.camellia.org Sun Jun 8 17:54:41 1997 Return-Path: cube-lovers-errors@oolong.camellia.org Received: from oolong.camellia.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by oolong.camellia.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id RAA06037; Sun, 8 Jun 1997 17:54:41 -0400 Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@oolong.camellia.org Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 10:31:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Nicholas Bodley To: Jerry Bryan cc: Tony Davie , cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Virtual cubes that you can feel In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 4 Jun 1997, Jerry Bryan wrote: {Snips} } }But by contrast, my personal experience is that graphics cube }manipulation programs have less charm than the real thing. There is }just something nice about the feel of the thing in your hands, and in }its obvious 3-D solidness. + + + In a recent issue of EE Times, the newspaper for EEs, was a short article that points out that we are getting closer to having force-feedback interfaces for our (personal) computers; these already exist in research machines. In such interfaces, you can feel the virtual objects; there are electric motors (or the equivalent) to generate computer-controlled forces according to the positions of the various parts of the mechanism; combined with data about the position and the location of the virtual object, the motors turn on when you "make contact" with the virtual object. I see no reason why we couldn't define a virtual cube with on-screen graphics to let us see it; we would then have the sensation of manipulating it. There would be no need for a mechanism (sad to say!) to hold the cubies together. (I love the innards...) Of course, there would be a reset button, and provisions to preset any arbitrary configuration. This would take some of the fun out of cube manipulation, naturally. My best regards, |* Nicholas Bodley *|* Electronic Technician {*} Autodidact & Polymath |* Waltham, Mass. *|* ----------------------------------------------- |* nbodley@tiac.net *|* When the year 2000 begins, we'll celebrate |* Amateur musician *|* the 2000th anniversary of the year 1 B.C.E. --------------------------------------------------------------------------