Force Feedback

A few years ago i was into gaming . I was intrigued by everything related to gaming.

A game should take u in another world and make the gaming experience unique .Many techniques are used to keep the gaming fans hooked into this stuff. Haptic -Technology or in general terms force feedback is what makes a simple game playing experience to amazing levels.

Haptic feedback is commonly used in arcade games, especially racing video games. In 1976, Sega's motorbike game Moto-Cross, also known as Fonz, was the first game to use haptic feedback. This caused the handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle.Tatsumi's TX-1later introduced force feedback to car driving games in 1983.

Some simple haptic devices are common in the form of game controllers, joysticks and steering wheels in particular. Early implementations were provided through optional components, such as the Nintendo 64 controller's Rumble Pak. Many newer generation console controllers and joysticks feature built in feedback devices, including Sony's DualShock technology. An example of this feature is the simulated automobile steering wheels that are programmed to provide a "feel" of the road. As the user makes a turn or accelerates, the steering wheel responds by resisting turns or slipping out of control.

In 2007, Novint released the Falcon, the first consumer 3D touch device with high resolution three-dimensional force feedback; this allowed the haptic simulation of objects, textures, recoil, momentum, and the physical presence of objects in games.

This paper-thin wafer may be the next big thing in force feedback

The most common form of force feedback in our electronic devices is the sort of 
rumbling buzz  you get when a motor spins some sort of mass inside the case of
your hardware. Video game controllers usually have two motors, one on each side
of the controller, and that sort of "rumble in stereo" configuration allows for a 
number of effects based on the speed of each motor. This takes power, it takes space,
 and there's not much you can do with the technology. 


Artificial Muscle, a Bayer MaterialScience company, has developed 
Vivitouch technology. Vivitouch a sort of artificial muscle that could changing 
how we experience haptic effects in our devices.

The Vivitouch device is small, almost perfectly flat.That thin piece of plastic 
in the image above produces a rumble effect that's more responsive, subtle, 
and expressive than the technology that's currently the market standard.

The haptic effects in this case are created by a "dialectric elastomer film" 
sandwiched between two layers of electrodes. The electrodes contract when 
electric current is introduced, causing movement. You still need mass in order
to give the player a satisfying feeling of movement and rumble, and in most of 
the devices seen—such as a concept cell phone and a modified iPad—the mass was
supplied by the device's battery.


Vivitouch is able to use the existing components of the device to create rumble,
 instead of the metal weights used by most game controllers and portable devices.

The cost of these strips will come down in time, and the benefits are many: the technology is smaller than existing motors, it requires less power, and the feedback offered by the rumble is much higher quality than what's currently available. It may take a little convincing for electronics manufacturers to look at a new way of offering force feedback, but Vivitouch has a compelling argument.

Well lets wait and watch.......