A Gripping Story

“On each of its fingertips is a sensor that allows the robot to feel, a sensation that’s piped across the world into my haptic glove. If I merely brush the Shadow Hand against a ball, I get a subtle sensation. When I grip the ball, the sensation grows more intense. Amazingly, there’s very little latency between my movement and the robot’s, even though the system is running through a 4G phone sitting on the table beside me. With the glove on my hand, I am both there in London and not there. I can feel the ball, but also not feel it, because what I’m getting is a reproduction of sensation. The gentle proddings are kind of like having a bunch of pixies dancing on each fingertip.” Matt Simon in Wired: How I Became a Robot in London—From 5,000 Miles Away. (And they said long distance relationships couldn’t work.)

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