The Wonder of Senses

Since the invention of printing, technological advances such as the telephone, television, electronic mail and video conferencing have enhanced our visual and auditory communication abilities. With the emergence of highly sophisticated artificial intelligence, further research into the human sensory system has become a crucial topic for modern science. Multi-sensory communication is the latest global research trend, of which haptics - the sense of touch - is attracting much attention. NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group, an affiliate of Japan’s largest communications company NTT, is a leader in future communications research. It has recently developed a cutting-edge device called "Buru-Navi", which incorporates haptic technology with human perception to create kinesthetic illusions. It delivers a false sense of being pushed or pulled, simply by holding the device. This technology can be widely adopted for various purposes – virtual reality games, walking support for visually impaired people, or even to encrypt data by using tactile perception. Another interesting field of study is called "Hengentou" or "Deformation Lamp", a new projection technique which can add movement to still paint or a photo by optical illusion.
This is a report about frontline scientific research into multi-sensory communications and scientists’ painstaking efforts to unravel the mechanism of human sense.