Kids Web Japan

It's the astonishing new tactile sensation display created by two Japanese universities

What a strange, mind-bending sensation: you feel certain there's something there, even though there isn't. That's the essence of 'GravityGrabber,' a remarkable new technology jointly developed by the Tachi Laboratory of the Graduate School of Keio University and the Kawakami Laboratory of the Graduate School of Tokyo University.

The technology was exhibited at the Tokyo Game Show 2009, and received huge coverage on TV news programs and the Internet. And ever since then its developers have been flooded with requests for information and interviews not only from within Japan but from many other countries as well. GravityGrabber has become a focus of worldwide attention.

What exactly is the 'GravityGrabber' tactile sensation display?

It's a technology that communicates the 'weight' and 'movement' of objects that don't exist. It does this by producing pressure on your fingers and hands in response to such actions as gripping, pushing, or stroking a box.

How it works:

First you attach a pair of tiny devices to your fingertips. Then GravityGrabber proceeds to calculate the positions of those devices with infrared sensors. At the same time it is calculating the slants of the devices with acceleration sensors. And it is in response to those calculations that two motors operating a belt on reels transmit a force to you.

If, for example, you move your fingers as if to pinch an image displayed on a PC screen, the devices communicate to your fingertips the sensation of actually pinching that image. On the other hand, if you wave an empty box back and forth, you feel as if a ball were bouncing around inside the box. You have the sensation that it is mirroring the movements of a ball bouncing around inside a box on the PC screen.

To use it you attach a pair of tiny devices to your fingertips.

When your fingers apply pushing pressure, a force is transmitted to your fingertips by two motors reeling a belt. When your fingers apply sideways pulling pressure, a force is transmitted to your fingertips by two motors generating a side-to-side displacement motion. This creates a sensation of weight and movement that don't actually exist.

When your fingers are holding an empty box, you seem to feel a ball inside the box, just like the ball inside the box on the PC screen.

GravityGrabber will make video games feel more real than ever before

Today's video games are making increasing use of 'vibrating' game controllers like Sony Computer Entertainment's DUALSHOCK, or Nintendo's Wii Remote. But these controllers are not yet able to communicate the sensation of 'touching' things, or of 'holding' them.

The application of GravityGrabber technology to video games, however, will do just that. For example in puzzle games when you pick up blocks and stack them you will feel like those blocks are actually there in your fingers! GravityGrabber will add dramatically to the fun of video games, and make them even more exciting to play.

Children are astonished—and enchanted—by the amazingly realistic sensations of GravityGrabber.

(Updated in February 2010)