A SIAT graduate student Azadeh Foirghani demonstrates the Flex N Feel glove.
Credit: SFU
Long distance has since been a problem in many relationships, but thanks to technology, that distance could easily be bridged.
Long-distance couples can share a walk, watch movies together, and even give each other a massage, using new technologies being developed in Carman Neustaedter’s Simon Fraser University lab.
Researchers have designed a pair of interconnected gloves called Flex-N-Feel. When fingers ‘flex’ in one glove, the actions are transmitted to a remote partner wearing the other. The glove’s tactile sensors allow the wearer to ‘feel’ the movements.
To capture the flex actions, the sensors are attached to a microcontroller. The sensors provide a value for each bend, and are transmitted to the ‘feel’ glove using a WiFi module.
It’s all about feeling connected, says Neustaedter, an associate professor in SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT).
“Users can make intimate gestures such as touching the face, holding hands, and giving a hug,” says Neustaedter. “The act of bending or flexing one’s finger is a gentle and subtle way to mimic touch.”
The gloves are currently a prototype and testing continues. While one set of gloves enables one-way remote touch between partners, Neustaedter says a second set could allow both to share touches at the same time.
S.O.Z