19 Nov Where the Sun Don’t Shine, Haptics May
Say you want to be a veterinarian. You’ve got to get to know a lot of animals in school, both inside and out. That requires a lot of time in the library, but eventually you have to get your hands dirty and actually touch some animals. Fortunately for the next generation of vet students, the days of putting your hand up a cow’s butt in vet school may be over, thanks to a little area of research known as Haptics.
Dr. Sarah Ballie, a veterinarian and computer scientist teaching at the Veterinary College of London, has developed a Virtual Haptic device to simulate the feeling of palpating a cow’s lower intestine. The benefits of this system aren’t limited to just the cows’ sense of dignity, either. By creating a virtual, computer-controlled environment, teachers have much better insight into what the students are doing inside the “animal”. They can objectively measure forces and tell a student how hard to push on something, or direct a student where to place a finger because they can see exactly where that finger is located.
While I look forward to the day when haptic technologies enrich our experience with our everyday devices, it’s nice to see that researchers are hard at work solving a problem that I will (hopefully) never experience. Current veterinarian students can also look forward to Dr. Ballie developing a Haptic Horse and a Haptic Cat in the near future. Surely, horses and cats will also be watching her work with interest.
Photo Credit: T. W. Vogel
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