Simulating touch
The next step in computer simulations may be touch. A new device developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh will now let computer users feel and manipulate 3-D objects on a computer screen. Called the magnetic levitation-based haptic interface, the device uses magnets to leviate a bowl containing a joystick. Researchers say that devices like these will be used in medical training and in flight simulation ( Popular Science , Vol 254, No 6).