Communications of the ACM
Squeeze Your Phone, and Send a Loved One a Hug
The ForcePhone can send vibrations back and forth to users who are having a conversation.
Credit: MIT
Researchers at the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology and Nokia have developed the ForcePhone, a device that can send vibrations back and forth to users who are having a conversation.
One user squeezes the phone during a call, and the listener's device will vibrate. The researchers call these pressure messages "pressages," and they can be transmitted while on a regular call or on a Skype call. The device is equipped with a force-sensitive resistor taped to the side. The system can pick up four different intensities of pressure, each of which translates to appropriately intense vibrations, says Helsinki researcher Eve Hoggan, who presented the device at the recent User Interface Software Technology conference. The phone's resistors are connected to a sensor board that fits into the phone's microSD port.
Hoggan says the researchers wanted the phone to look as normal as possible so that users would be encouraged to treat it like a regular phone.
From Technology Review
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