New Technique to Help Feel Pain in Virtual Reality

An employee sits inside a virtual reality connected car cockpit
built by Segula Technologies during the first press day ahead of the
85th International Motor Show in Geneva March 3, 2015. (Photo by Arnd
Wiegmann/Reuters)
An employee sits inside a virtual reality connected car cockpit built by Segula Technologies during the first press day ahead of the 85th International Motor Show in Geneva March 3, 2015. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)
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New Technique to Help Feel Pain in Virtual Reality

An employee sits inside a virtual reality connected car cockpit
built by Segula Technologies during the first press day ahead of the
85th International Motor Show in Geneva March 3, 2015. (Photo by Arnd
Wiegmann/Reuters)
An employee sits inside a virtual reality connected car cockpit built by Segula Technologies during the first press day ahead of the 85th International Motor Show in Geneva March 3, 2015. (Photo by Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

After a quantum leap in the digital tech industry over the two past decades, many of us sarcastically said: "The only thing we still miss is the ability to share a meal with the characters in a movie, or to feel what they feel."

However, it seems that the technological progress knows no sarcasm. All the imaginary ideas that people have now, or those they didn't have yet, may soon become a reality that we live.

This is at least what the modern innovations taught us. A team from the Tomsk State University in Russia, announced it has designed a new device that allows humans to feel the "beats," "burns," and even "tinkling" in virtual reality. According to a press release by the university, the new technique can be used in video games.

In addition, the researchers are currently developing their technique so it allows people to feel illusory motions, like when a mosquito settles on their skin or someone draws on their bodies, for instance.

The research team cited several devices that are currently used to transmit the sense of pain in virtual reality; these devices have a wearable skeleton-like structure that transmits the "sense" to the muscles through electric stimulation.

The researchers say the new device is based on the same concept, but it targets the skin without exposing the muscles to an electric pulse.

Researcher Andre Kostornoy, supervisor of the new innovation, said: "The new device affects a precise area of the skin," and stressed "the need for personal settings for each user based on his level of resistance to electrical pulses."

He explained that the principle adopted in the transfer of sensation is based on the same mechanism of brain function. It processes the signal coming from the skin, thereby obtaining a sense of touch, and draws the image of the material or device that comes into contact with the skin at the right moment.

Kostornoy said his team is working on improving the performance of the device so it becomes able to induce a sense of interaction with movements, objects, and characters, like "feeling the touch of another person's palm, for example."

The researcher said "developing this device is a promising achievement that would help control robots through signals communication."



70 South African White Rhinos Relocated to Rwanda

 White rhinos have been the targets of a poaching epidemic that has largely wiped them out. (AFP)
White rhinos have been the targets of a poaching epidemic that has largely wiped them out. (AFP)
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70 South African White Rhinos Relocated to Rwanda

 White rhinos have been the targets of a poaching epidemic that has largely wiped them out. (AFP)
White rhinos have been the targets of a poaching epidemic that has largely wiped them out. (AFP)

Rwanda said on Tuesday that 70 white rhinos had been successfully relocated to the Great Lakes nation after a two-day journey of some 3,000 kilometers (over 1,800 miles) from South Africa.

It was the largest ever relocation of rhinos, which can weigh up to two tons, Rwandan officials said.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers have dramatically fallen due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching.

The animals were transported in two loads of 35 -- first aboard a Boeing 747, then by road -- from South Africa's Munywana Conservancy to Akagera National Park in Rwanda, or about 3,000 kilometers as the crow flies, according to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

A "dedicated veterinary team will closely monitor their health and behavior for several weeks to ensure proper adaptation to their new environment and management of any stress associated with the move", it said in a statement.

The move was part of African Parks' Rhino Rewild Initiative, supported by The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and aims to support population growth and secure a new breeding stronghold in Rwanda.

According to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), rhino poaching in Africa rose by four percent from 2022 to 2023, with at least 586 rhinos poached in 2023.

The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies, is now listed as "near threatened", with roughly 17,000 individuals remaining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The northern white rhino has all but vanished, with only two females left alive.