ViviTouch 'intensifies' mobile gaming experience

ERJ staff report (LMH)

London - Artificial Muscle Inc., a developer of electroactive polymer products, has introduced ViviTouch, which it says will intensify the mobile gaming experience.

Artificial Muscle, a division of Bayer MaterialScience, said that ViviTouch has evolved the immersive gaming experience that replicates the movements in the game movements more accurately. It said that whereas phones vibrate and controllers rumble, ViviTouch “translates thousands of sensations into a versatile language of feedback.”

The core of the product is using an electroactive polymer (EAP) in a multilayer film configuration based on silicone and polyurethane elastomers, Dirk Schapeler, CEO of Artificial Muscle told ERJ in an 18 Jan email.

The film has a compliant electrode on the top and bottom side and becomes thinner and expands in surface when a voltage is applied. Thus electrical energy gets converted directly into a movement, which is highly energy efficient, fast, silent and without any heat generation. In addition those films are less than 100um thin.

“Using EAP, you have a very efficient transfer between power (your electric charge) and motion (the EAP material expanding and contracting very quickly). Because of this speed and instant response, we can send analogue signals containing vibration or audio wave forms to very closely simulate the actual vibration you'd expect to feel,” Schapeler explained.

“Think of it like a speaker for haptic feedback, only instead of hearing the output, you're feeling it. In one of our demos, for example, we show a video of a motorcycle starting and revving its engine. The feel of the controller accurately matches the audio signal and feels a lot like you'd expect a bike to feel in that situation,” he added.

A ViviTouch motor can be designed into a number of devices, such as mobile phones or tablet computer. However, it can also be sold as an attachment to existing devices.

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Website of ViviTouch