A student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has come up with a device called the Phantom that is lets the user touch virtual objects, reports the Wall Street Journal. It consists of a moveable arm with a freely swivelling thimble where the hand should be. By putting a finger in the thimble the user can ‘virtually’ touch an object that has been generated by the computer. The effect is created by a changing resistance that the computer controlled arm puts through the thimble onto the user’s finger. Phantom was created last year and although it has not been advertised, copies have been selling fast to researchers. Soon cars maybe moulded from virtual clay and the results shown on a video display, or surgeons could practise difficult operations on computerised models of patients. One program that has been written enables trainee surgeons to biopsy a brain tumour. The Phantom thimble is pushed by the user and a simulated needle slides into a brain – or rather a scanner image of a real patient’s head shown on a computer display. As the needle pierces a tough layer of brain tissue, the thimble’s resistance lessens, giving the sense of a sudden pop. Interval Research Corp of Palo Alto own four of the 13 Phantoms that have been sold so far, although it is not saying what it is doing with them. The cost of the device seems to be spurring its success. It is $19,500 compared to the $200,000 that more advanced systems cost. -Abigail Waraker
