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Research One Soft Touch,
via the Computer

Now that the principles of sight and hearing have been deciphered,
researchers at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering are tackling
the next challenge: digitizing touch, our most complex sense. PhD
candidate Yair Herbst and advisors Prof. Alon Wolf and
Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor are working on groundbreaking
research to develop a system that will provide a physical
sensation for digital objects. This revolutionary research will
fundamentally change the way we buy, play and work

 Maayan Meir

Photos by Unsplash

Imagine you want to buy a new blanket for Wolf, dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
your most sensory-sensitive child, the one Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor, vice dean of advanced degrees
with the most exacting blanket require- at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering
ments. Instead of clearing time in your (and a Faculty of Mechanical Engineering graduate her-
busy schedule to go to the nearest bedding self) and Dr. Yair Herbst, whose PhD was co-supervised
store, you simply visit the store’s website by Zelnik-Manor and Wolf.
on your computer. Your child wants a blanket
with a very specific texture, and the online shop The three have dedicated the past three years to a
allows you to test out the texture of each blanket project that sounds like science-fiction but is likely to
you’re interested in. You choose a few blankets that make the above blanket-choosing scenario a reality,
seem to have potential – and then, instead of making and soon: a system incorporated into devices such as
do with pictures and a description, move your cursor computer mice, keyboards or joysticks, making it pos-
over the picture of each blanket and feel which has the sible to feel objects located in a different place, or even
most velvety texture, the one that will satisfy your pam- ones that don’t exist at all.
pered child.
Sounds like fantasy? Not if you talk to Prof. Alon It would be hard to overstate the scope of the rev-
olution that this system being developed in the Fac-
ulty of Mechanical Engineering will spark. It’s not just

10 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering