Pushing boundaries of virtual reality

UT Dallas researchers are extending the borders of virtual reality, going beyond virtual spaces in which people can see and hear each other to an environment that adds the sense of touch.

The technology would make it possible for physical therapists, for example, to work with patients in other locations. When a patient pushes down on a device, a doctor's device in another location would also move down with the same force, as if the patient were physically pressing the doctor's hand.

Professors in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science are creating a multimedia system that uses multiple 3-D cameras to create avatars of humans in two different places, and then puts them in the same virtual space where they can interact.

In traditional telemedicine, a doctor and patient both appear on the same screen and are able to talk, but they are not in the same physical space.