22nd March 2020, India announced its first nationwide junta curfew, as a stint to reduce mass gatherings and implement social distancing, courtesy of COVID-19. Little was known that this one-day lockdown will be extended into a six-month long stint (with advisory for the current month: step out only when needed!). I saw the effect of this lockdown not just as the increasing quarrels amongst family members but also in their longing to meet friends and other relatives who were now only seen through a 6-inch screen. In the last six months, I have seen an increasing reliance on technology: not just Netflix-ing and chilling but also surge in video calls to local friends and family.
Prior to the lockdown, I never realized one could miss high-fives and hugs. Aside from highlighting the faults of healthcare systems worldwide, COVID-19 successfully managed to create isolation bubbles. Now imagine, what if you could hug someone virtually though a call (Especially if that loved one were stuck in the hospital alone because of COVID, and no physical contact allowed whatsoever)? Enter haptics.
Our current common knowledge of haptics is often limited to the buzz of our phones or smart watches/bands, with feedback in the form of vibratory notifications. While, there is a surge of research to understand the implementation of haptic effects in the gaming industry to make VR games more realistic, there is a lack of affordable consumer-ready products.
Where does this leave us? In a world where everything suddenly went online, there is a need for technology catering to optimize video calls. While Facebook and Microsoft are geared up their research to make video calls haptics augmented, and hope to exploit the wonders that 5G internet promises, there stands a massive challenge of cost-optimizing these theoretical ideas (Sorry Facebook, the Oculus VR set is expensive!). The quality of haptics is dependent on the components of the motor that creates the vibrations. Better quality implies higher costs. COVID has created distance but I am hopeful technology will help reduce it (an increased global market projection of the haptics industry also makes me optimistic)! Funnily enough, I got a job during lockdown, and haven’t met my team in person yet. I signed the contracts without literally shaking on them, which felt odd. Reminiscing the ol’ times where team members introduced each other and shook hands! Now imagine if a system for remote handshaking existed, wouldn’t that be amazing?
compossible umwelten 