Future on display: Technology you'll want to stroke

Whatever you might expect from the latest computer technology, fur is unlikely to be one of them.

An unusual display at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics and animation conference in Los Angeles this month is all about the senses, and uses optical fibre to create a surface that feels furry.

Humans are naturally inclined to stroke furry objects, say Kosuke Nakajima from Osaka University, Japan, and colleagues. So, they say, we will need no instructions to interact with a furry display. "The surface of the Fusa2 display is covered with fur made of optical fibres. When a user stands in front of the display, they begin to touch its surface without any suggestions and instructions," says Yuichi Itoh of Osaka University, who is project manager of Fusa2.

When you stroke the display, it changes colour, creating "stroke marks". "In order to detect the touched area, the fibre-optics surface has many infrared LEDs," explains Itoh. Underneath the display, half the fibres lead to a camera and the other half to a projector. When a hand strokes the fibres, the infrared radiation is reflected and travels down the fibres to the camera. This image is fed to a computer, which calculates the track of the hand and has the projector shine coloured light up through the other fibres to create the coloured trails.

Itoh believes there are practical applications for a screen that users intuitively want to stroke. Because people are naturally drawn to it, it could work well with digital signage, he says, or for robotic pets. "If we create a bigger one, we could even construct a soccer stadium with turf made of a Fusa2 display. This could show lots of information, like the offside line, players' positions and score."