Virtual petting
Wired reports that researchers at the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore have developed the "Touchy Internet" -- a system for touching and petting other animals via internet link (i.e. "remote haptic interaction").
Here's how it works for a chicken:
You walk into your office, where a hollow, chicken-shaped doll sits on a mechanical positioning table close to your computer.
The doll whirs to life as soon as you switch on the system, duplicating the motion of a real chicken in the backyard whose movements are being captured by a webcam.
Fondling the doll translates into touching the real fowl.
Touch sensors attached to the doll convey tactile information to a nearby PC through radio signals. The data is sent over the internet to a remote computer near the chicken; the remote computer triggers tiny vibration motors in a lightweight haptic jacket worn by the fowl.
The chicken feels your touch in the exact same place where the replica was stroked.
As an animal lover who suffers from allergies to pet dander, I now can take some solace in the future of remote haptic interaction.
Of course, researchers are especially excited about the potential for human interaction. For example, "internet hugging":
The team is investigating the possibility of "internet hugging" and plans to develop an advanced haptic suit for humans, which will incorporate tiny air sacs, compressors and valves to impart a "high-fidelity" feeling of being hugged.
Both parties in the internet hug would have to wear haptic suits, and they would have to cuddle a human doll or a pillow embedded with pressure sensors. Adding a heartbeat and body-heat sensors would provide more intimacy.
Just think ... pretty soon we will be able to enjoy human contact without the miasma of the human body.
Mercerism, here we come.
11:39:39 PM 
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