18
Nov
Imagine if you could simply touch someone’s ear to make them hear something. A project out of Disney Research makes it possible. Disney Research has crossed these wires in a project called Ishin-Den-Shin (a Japanese expression for communicating through an unspoken mutual understanding). Developed by Olivier Bau, Ivan Poupyrev, and Yuri Suzuki, the system records sounds through a device fitted to the microphone that creates a "modulated electrostatic field" around the user's skin. When touching another person's ear, this modulated electrostatic field creates a very small vibration of the earlobe. As a result, both the finger and the ear together form a speaker, that makes the…