The innovation and ideas at Disney never stop. In fact, last summer, the idea people at Disney came up with a new way to feel phantom objects floating in the air.

The idea concept of AIREAL was a result of the research by University of Illinois PhD student Rajinder Sodhi and Disney Research’s Ivan Poupyrey.

The AIREAL puffs air rings allow a person to actually feel objects and textures in mid-air without the need for special controllers or gloves.

This invention is essentially a set of five speakers in a box that tracks a person’s body and then fires low frequencies through a nozzle, in order to form donut-like vortices.

Furthermore, AIREAL can do a myriad of things from creating a button for you to touch in mid-air to creating whole textures by pulsing the bubbles to mimic water, stone and sand.

There also is a convenience factor included in this invention, due to the fact that a single AIREAL could support multiple people and a grid of this invention could create extremely immersive rooms, which could produce a sensation, like a flock of birds flying by, for instance.

Not to mention, this new technology is designed to use a vortex or a ring of air that can travel great distances, all the while keeping its shape and speed. When the vortex touches the user’s skin, the low pressure system inside collapses and reveals a force that the user can feel.

But, as if this invention couldn’t get any cooler, it’s actually almost entirely 3D-printed using a 3D-printed enclosure, a flexible nozzle and a pan and tilt gimbal structure that is capable of a 75-degree targeting field. The flexible nozzle is what allows a vortex to be precisely delivered to a location in 3D space.

This invention is part of Disney’s long-term vision for creating large-scale computer augmented environments that can deliver interactive experiences seamlessly at any time, everywhere.

The free air tactile feedback technology also is a key component of these future interactive inventions and offers a wide range of opportunities, including gaming and storytelling, mobile interfaces and gesture controls among a myriad of others.

Take a look at this video to get a better look at Disney’s AIREAL:

Copyright Davison 2014

Sources:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673054/disneys-crazy-invention-lets-you-feel-phantom-objects-floating-in-air#2

http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/aireal/

Media:

http://www.disneyresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/AIREALVortexRing1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaFBjUJj00M

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Writers, artists and draftsmen are just some of the creative types whose lives and careers have been transformed by these ingenious tools. Celebrated novelist John Steinbeck used 300 pencils to write East of Eden. Trail-blazing animator and entrepreneur Walt Disney first sketched Mickey Mouse’s ears with a pencil and the rest is history.

The origins of the pencil and pen are actually just as fascinating as the words and pictures they have recorded throughout time. The earliest means of writing with pen and paper as we know it was developed by the Greeks, and perfected by the Romans.

The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history – over 1,000 years — was the quill pen. Introduced in Europe around 700 A.D. and made from a bird feather, quill pens lasted for only a week before it was necessary to replace them. Lewis Waterman of New York patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884 and in 1931, Hungarian Laszlo Biro invented the ballpoint pen — the writing implement of choice for most people today because of their neatness and reliability.

(A sketch of Saturn by Galileo)

The idea for the pencil came much later in human history and quite by accident. Some time prior to about 1560, graphite was discovered near Borrowdale, England, supposedly when a large tree was uprooted in a storm, exposing a black substance beneath its roots.

Because graphite is soft, it requires some form of encasement.  Graphite sticks were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for stability. Shortly after, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together—essentially the same method in use to this day.

Because graphite is soft, it requires some form of encasement.  Graphite sticks were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for stability. Shortly after, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together—essentially the same method in use to this day.

Although the pencil was first officially documented in 1565 by Conrad Gesner, and its invention is sometimes attributed to him, it wasn’t until the late 1700s that manufacturing techniques similar to those practiced today were developed.

The method of making pencils was painstakingly slow, so Joseph Dixon, an inventor and entrepreneur, developed a means to mass-produce pencils. By 1870, The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was the world’s largest dealer and consumer of graphite and later became the contemporary Dixon Ticonderoga pencil and art supplies company.

In 1858, Hymen Lipman did us all a great favor when he received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil. As we continue to use the pencil to help sketch the future, we can also rely on the eraser to make a few revisions along the way.

Copyright Davison 2013

Images:

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/the-earliest-known-drawings-of-mickey-mouse-1928-photo-walt-disney-family-foundation.jpg

http://s3.hubimg.com/u/6837618_f520.jpg

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