Deakin Uni haptics has the right touch

Parents visiting the doctor for an ultrasound of their unborn baby will be able to 'touch' as well as see their baby with new technology being developed at Deakin University.

The technology links sophisticated ultrasound machinery which scans a three-dimensional image of the baby to a haptic device allowing parents to touch the child in a virtual environment.

The image can be stored in special format on a computer so that years later the 'touch and feel' experience can be recalled - perhaps by people virtually 'revisiting themselves' in the womb.

A team of Deakin researchers, led by the School of Engineering's Professor Saeid Nahavandi, investigated the new technology which is unique in Australia and can be found in only one other laboratory in the United States.

Prof. Nahavandi said that over the next 10 years the field of haptics would have a great impact on a wide variety of fields from engineering and technology to medicine, art and ancient anthropology.

"Haptics will allow users to interact and get a real feel for virtual objects and objects created from imaging technologies such as ultrasound," he said. "Haptics will also become a great tool for training and will assist designers to perform virtual assembly to minimise various work related injuries, RSI and problematic manual tasks in hospitals, factories or offices."

Prof. Nahavandi said trainee doctors would be able to use haptic technology to perform operations or administer anaesthetics for the first time and 'see and feel' the entire experience without needing to practice on a patient.

Aerospace and automotive vehicle design could be assisted by haptics technology where the developer or customer would be able to 'see and feel' the experience of flying a fighter jet or driving a formula one car through a haptic device, he said.

The Deakin team has spent years developing computer models on which this technology is based and now an Australian Research Council grant has led to Australia's first haptics research laboratory which combines haptics with three-dimensional vision and stereophonic sound.

Item provided courtesy of Deakin University