Haptic Wearables

Engadget reports from the E for All Expo about a force feedback vest, initially designed to provide a tactile effect when your game avatar is shot in Call of Duty.

This got me thinking about wearables and haptic feedback generally as it could provide a useful interface for this current project - and as they say your accessability issue is my usability issue, hence the tactile feedback is a powerful feature for gaming generally.

It also stuck a chord because I was discussing military flight simulators with a guy who's recently been accepted into the RAF. He told me about the kind of physical feedback those machines are equipped with - the pilot is strapped in as they might be in a normal jet, but the straps are used to simulate the sensation of increased gravitation when flying the aircraft in tight corners etc. They pull the pilot into the seat with a force comparable to that which would be experienced in an actual aircraft.