Japanese
TopicTouched, Grabbed and Pushed by Digital Feelings! Experience the World’s First 3D Haptics Technology
Wow! What’s this? Genius!
Everyone can’t stop looking at own fingertips with shouting out, just touching Dr. Nakamura’s ‘Magic’ study.
It is only a very light and tiny box of one caramel size, but it makes a magic at fingertip. When you grab this box by fingertips, in the air, you sense the power of pulling forward and pushing back. When you push it down, feel like your hand floating up, then when you pull too much more, you feel as the rubber band blown up like snap. This is the world’s hottest cutting-edge and the very first technology, Digital Touching Sensation of Dr. Nakamura.
The usage of this reproducing a realistic touching sensation is innumerable, since the devices with touching sensor such as smart-phones are continuously increasing to commodity in the world.
Dr. Nakamura is so busy to discuss with the pioneers from all over the world in the global industry at his office in Silicon Valley, US.
Norio Nakamura, Ph.D.
MIRAISENS.Inc. Founder.CTO
How the research began
Even though human beings have five senses, the previous informatics devices mainly used only visual and auditory information so that we couldn’t feel touch or push sensation of the image object.
Dr. Nakamura is a researcher on virtual reality (VR) and always wanted to reproduce the realistic touching sensation and body sensory experience. However, it was so difficult to realize such kinds of devices suitable for practical daily use, because it needs a huge and heavy mechanical apparatus such as robot-arm or gyroscope by the previous technology.
Dr. Nakamura changed his viewpoint drastically from the scientific mainstream approaches that reproduce reaction force physically to generate the sensation, comprehensively he tried to reproduce the equivalent experience response ‘cognitively and informationally’ in the brain.
Since he threw away his successive engineering-approach in the academic engineering field using gyroscope etc., he have found out the original and creative approach in brain science field by his inspiration as a brain scientist / sense psychologist without any prejudice.
Finally, he has reached the idea that brain feels ‘touched’ and ‘pushed’ as cognitive response!?
This is the first small step to the world’s astonishing invention.
What is the nature of touching?
Dr. Nakamura says people recognize the presence of object by the combination of three fundamental sensations, which are the pressure sensation at fingertips, the tactile sensation of the surface texture, and the kinesthetic sensation to feel touch and resistance. These three fundamental sensations are respectively related the human’s sensory organs of touching. Dr. Nakamura calls these three sensations as three primary sensations of touching as same as three primary colors which reproduce any color by mixing.
The cutting-edge technology to generate these three sensations in one device, the Digital Touching Sensation, was developed from the key concept ‘how well trap the brain’ using thorough knowledge from the cognitive science and physics/engineering technics.
He examined a number of possibilities such as vibration and electric stimulation to trap the brain. He still keep working on a stimulation generating device to be smaller and special stimulation patterns to trap the brain effectively, and the database to indicate the relationship between the sensations and the stimulation patterns. With these three core technology, Dr. Nakamura created the amazing experiences of pulled forward feeling and pushed back feeling in the air without robot-arm, and dented and slide down feeling on the hard flat panel. This competitive technology is firmly and widely guaranteed through patents world-widely.
In 2014, Dr. Nakamura founded the venture company named ‘MIRAISENS, Inc.’ to actualize this sensory future business, also is promoting global launch setting a stranglehold in Silicon Valley of the United States.
World is filled with Touching sensation
Dr. Nakamura describes the current world as although touching action is primordial desire of human beings as baby tries to know d world firstly by touching, only visual and auditory senses have been depicted in the information world such as appliances, cinemas and games.
And he continues, Adding the haptic sense to the world described, there will arise the massive innovation of lifestyle to expand human experiences and values.
Digital Touching Sensation is unlimitedly applicable to the innovation.
If it would be implemented to the smartphone and smart-watch, for example, it can be a navigator of walking and human action as to take and lead a hand to right and left kindly and properly in the field of medical and welfare.
These are realized base on the accurate human data, that is Deep Data, by monitoring the perception, cognition, and behavior and controlling the devices and environment adaptively and properly in the real life.
That is the same to that the human can analyze widely, consider deeply, and determine properly through the experience and knowledge in the flood of Big Data.
Or you may feel ‘pushing the button interactively and intuitively’ with operating automotive digital interface and other touch panel devices such as Kiosk.
It may change dramatically the sensory dimension in entertainment with sensory embodiment expansion leading to the active experience, for example, the real person can experience the character’s physical motion and some shocks the character received in movies and VR spaces.
Dr. Nakamura himself is multi-talented as football player, engineer, brain / sensory psychologist and educator, which is related to brain fields of passion, logic, emotion, and its collaboration. He was using his own multiple characteristics for development of this sensory technology. Now he feels reaching the stage that the pioneer in an innovative field needs warm-heartedness as a person, creativity as a researcher, and responsibility as an entrepreneur, for the successful technology transfer of AIST's outcome, said Dr. Nakamura.
He is firming up the deep relationship with the world’s leaders in wide categories with holding the certain mission, vision, and passion. His challenge to create the absolute new world’s market and Ecosystem of the Digital Touching Sensation Business is about to begin, expanding his own activity beyond as a researcher.