Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created a magnetic levitation haptic device that allows users to experience a whole new 3D experience, by being able to interact with computed environments simply by using the sense of touch.

The idea first came out to light back in 1997, but its developers created in recent years a lower-cost, more effective haptic device that is able to simulate the sensations in a hand while in contact with different surfaces or objects.

The bowl-shaped device consists of a series of electromagnets below its base and a levitating control handle able to move in all three dimensions. The creator of the device made a brief demonstration on Tuesday, by asking its visitors to virtually cross a pin across a surface with different textures, which made the controller have different reaction to each one of them.

As Ralph Hollis, research professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotic Institute said in an official announcement, the device offers “the most realistic sense of touch” than any other similar devices in the world.

Unlike traditional haptic devices, this one in particular offers some advantages, such as: single moving part with 6 degrees of freedom, zero static friction, zero mechanical backlash, high position and force bandwidths, high position resolution, low perceived mass, very wide range of stiffnesses possible, mechanical simplicity, no tight tolerances.

Unlike the older version, the new device will cost less than $50,000, and will have a wide range of applications, especially in domains such is surgery, where it could simulate the texture of tissues and organs of the human body - a great asset for a surgeon-to-be.

A total of ten such devices have been built do far, six of which are to be sent at universities across the country and Canada, Hollis said. At the same time, Butterfly Haptics will be the company to produce and market the device around this summer.

Image credits: Microdynamic Systems Laboratory