Virtalis Showcases Haptics Technology at AMRC

User interacts with virtual environment by combining a Haption device with a 3D stereoscopic environment

MARCH 26th is the date for the Virtalis half-day seminar on haptics, or virtual touch, at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield. Virtalis is Europe’s leading Virtual Reality (VR) company and one of the world’s leading authorities on haptics. The seminar is open to all interested parties at no cost and will include hands-on demonstrations, a buffet lunch and examples of the variety of uses of haptic systems globally.

Gary Ireland, Virtalis development engineer, explained: “Lots of people talk about haptics, but we are the only company in the UK who has been successfully integrating the technology into Virtual Reality (VR) systems. Touch really does increase the level of immersion. Just like advanced visualisation, haptic force feedback can be used to explore pre-existing CAD models from across the PLM spectrum.”

SensAble Phantom used to construct and touch virtual objects by a desktop user Virtalis provides impartial advice as to which haptic system and advanced visualisation solution to choose for an application or range of applications. On 26th March, delegates will be shown Haption force feedback systems, which are one of the few available that have six degrees of freedom (6 dof) and have proven reference sites in the engineering industry. They enable the life like simulation of interaction between two 3D virtual objects, giving the users realistic, real-time force feedback akin to the sensation of touch. Virtalis recently integrated Haption into a prestigious VR installation at Airbus, Broughton. The Virtalis team will also be demonstrating the capabilities of the SensAble Phantom Desktop and the smaller SensAble Phantom Omni haptic devices, which are desktop and portable systems used by designers all over the world.

Andrew Connell, technical director at Virtalis, commented: “We are grateful to our partners, AMRC, for hosting AMRC with Boeing and Rolls Royce Factory of the Future us in their splendid new Rolls-Royce Factory of the Future. Although few people have experienced the power of haptic technology, it is actually a technology of the present, as it is mature and, like VR, fosters communication, breaking down the linguistic barriers that exist between different disciplines. Once people have a shared vision and a shared touch, the benefits are so inherent that reduced time to market and cost reductions appear to become incidental.”