Here's the video of the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display, one of those technologies that will probably change entertainment forever: A high-fidelity 3D force field on the air that allows you to actually touch virtual objects with your bare hands. Initially, this technology could find its way into virtual keyboards, but in the future--as the size and resolution increases--there are endless possibilities. And with "endless possibilities" I really mean "virtual sex." Don't believe me? See what the developer has to say about it:

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Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated a device that can create touchable, creepily invisible floating "objects" using focused ultrasound waves. Though the technology is early testing stages, its designers have already expressed an interest in weaponi- I mean, commercialising it for possible use in gaming and design applications. For now, the team has only been able to simulate resistance in one direction, but say that forming complex shapes and textures is plausible.

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Cowon's upcoming P5 will improve on their A3 and Q5W portable media players (which we've both reviewed) with the addition of a haptics touch-feedback feature. The rest is fairly similar: a 800x480 screen, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, stereo speakers, USB, extreme codec support and 40GB-80GB sizes. There will still be Wi-Fi, but you'll have to get it tacked on after the fact with a dongle. The Korean price is US$430ish by the end of the month. No US info yet as far as we know. Maybe we can trade them an early sneak peek at Starcraft 3 for this? [Cowon via CNET]

Modder and frequent terminal user Matt was getting mighty tired of his piercing PC speaker going off with every typo, so he rigged up a nifty DIY haptics setup using a Microsoft keyboard and an old mobile phone vibrator triggered by the scroll lock LED. Unless you're playing Oregon Trail in your elementary school's computer lab 15 years ago, you probably haven't heard your PC speaker in a long while, but if you're frequently using the terminal (especially under Linux) for command line tasks, this is the mod for you. [CiboMahto via MAKE]

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Among the rush of Apple patents relating to touchscreens over the last year came one on tactile feedback touchscreens, and Nokia seems to have been thinking along the same lines. Almost exactly the same lines, since Nokia's Haptikos tech is a system of fluid-cells driven by piezoelectric actuators that push up through a flexible touchscreen. And that sounds a lot like Apple's sub-surface, adjustable tactile "keys." But apparently the Nokia tech is aimed at "variable and controllable user perceived surface roughness or friction coefficient" rather than buttons. Fascinating stuff, nevertheless. [Unwiredview]

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The Boy Genius Report has a first look at Motorola's answer to the "Touch Screen Wars," called the Blaze. From the looks of the branding, this touchy-feely handset is coming to Verizon, complete with a special Verizon-only operating system. BGR says the touch screen is decent, and the mobile browser is "OK," but nothing to write home about. Email and texting functionality are also lambasted by BGR, as is the crush-the-screen-to-make-it-work haptic touchscreen feedback. Specs include a 2 megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. A support, GPS, and Bluetooth. They didn't sound too keen on the Blaze, but they didn't write it off completely. Thoughts? [Boy Genius Report]

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Roboticist Steve Yohanan thinks there's something missing from the design of many robots: the human touch. By omitting the touch sensation from robotic design, Steve thinks that scientists and engineers are missing out on an important machine-human interaction, capable of communicating emotions. So he's designed and built Haptic Creature, a furry robotic research bunny with touch feedback as its only way of communicating.

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Remember when it was cool to joke about how the vibrating Wii remote looked, felt and behaved pretty much like a vibrator? No? Well, too bad, because it turns out that the two were more similar than the light-hearted humour suggested. In fact, both tools of pleasure employ technology built from a patent from the same company, Immersion.

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If a Palluxo.com source is to be believed, Apple is currently in talks with Immersion Corp. regarding haptic technology implementation for the iPhone. Immersion Corp. solutions have been implemented in Samsung handsets in the past and it now looks like Apple want in on the action. The conjecture gathers weight thanks to Clent Richardson, a former Apple executive that has just been appointed as Immersion Corporation's CEO.

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Remember that sleek black mobile phone from LG we wrote about earlier this month? More details are emerging, most notably that it shoots DivX video at 120 frames per second, and sports face-recognition technology on that 5-megapixel camera, as well as having haptic feedback, mobile Google apps and Bluetooth. Oh, and one for Conan O'Brien—its name is *whispers* Secret. Full press release after the jump.

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