Designed to allow persons with visual impairments to touch and feel objects being referenced on TV, this haptic feedback system will no doubt get co-opted for less benevolent uses, like advertising and adult entertainment. Haptic feedback systems like this have existed before, but what sets this new version apart is its ability to apply pressure to five unique points on a finger.
So a user can more accurately discern the shape and how a virtual object is positioned in 3D space by feeling its simulated angles, edges and corners.
With just a single point of finger stimuli on previous systems, determining what exactly was being ‘touched’ was often very confusing. However, the new system provides more tactile for the brain to work with, allowing the visually impaired to easily recongize their favourite actor by feeling their facial features, or, you know, other parts. [DigInfo TV]