When you open the door, it hits you and warmth spreads over your skin. Fighting the smoke and heat, I brace myself and head inside. As you walk through a burning building, flames flicker around you. You find what you want and run away. It's so cold outside that I start shivering and my hands and feet go numb.
But when I remove the headset, everything stops. An incredibly realistic training exercise is now complete. All of these sensations felt real, but they were not caused by changes in my surroundings. Instead, carefully selected chemicals were injected into the skin to mimic different emotions.
Such stimuli have long helped us understand the most complex of the human senses: touch. In the 1990s, research into capsaicin, an extract from chili peppers, and menthol, found in peppermint, helped determine how our bodies respond to heat and cold. now, Jasmine Lu and colleagues at the University of Chicago They use this knowledge to create chemically induced sensations that make virtual environments incredibly realistic.
With a technology called chemical haptics, they built a wearable device that, when placed on the skin, can cause the wearer to experience different sensations, such as hot or cold, numbness or tingling, depending on their needs. . Its uses could include creating highly realistic virtual worlds for gamers to explore, training firefighters, and more. But will we ever be able to fully recreate the experience of touching the real thing? And if we can't, what might we stand to lose?
Source: www.newscientist.com
