Making remote hugs tangible with virtual skin contact
Technology that will enable children in hospital isolation wards to feel in a natural way the close physical proximity of their parents during virtual visits is being developed by an interdisciplinary research team at Saarland University, HTW Saar University of Applied Sciences, the Centre for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
The Multi-Immerse project is at the interface of engineering science, neurotechnology, medicine and computer science and the members of the research team are designing ways to realise multi-sensory virtual encounters between individuals.
The aim is to create new technology that will allow young patients to see, hear and feel their parents and siblings in as realistic a manner as possible so that the children experience a strong sense of close physical interaction even though they are physically separated.
For the full story, see the May 2024 edition of Smart Textiles & Wearables.
Photo: Oliver Dietze/Saarland University