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| Dr.Thenkurussi Kesava Das, Associative Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York State University, USA |
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Although sight and sound can be conveyed across the Internet, the faculty of touch was so far in the realm of science fiction. It is here that the significance of the work done by Dr.Thenkurussi Kesava Das, Associative Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at New York State University comes.
His ‘Sympathetic Hepatices’, makes it possible for a person to experience the same feel of hand that another person across the computer network experiences. In reality, the sensation of touch is conveyed by the variation in pressure felt by the hand when it touches different objects. Dr. Kesava Das was able to build a ‘virtual reality data glove’, that was able to digitally convert the feel of touch that someone does while wearing it. This digital message when transmitted across the net was able to activate another device of touch at a remote location so that anyone touching that surface could feel the same sensation that the first man with data gloves felt.
The implications of the work are many. A father of a new born infant in the Gulf could feel the same touch that a nurse bestows on his just born baby, or an acclaimed surgeon in New York could ‘feel’ the tumour of a patient in Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram and prescribe the treatment, or at an e-com site, a visitor could feel the cloths before ordering them online.
Dr.Kesava Das completed his B.Tech from NSS College, Palakkad and M.Tech from IIT, Chennai. He completed his doctoral work at Pennsylvania State University in USA before taking up the job in New York.
His wife is Mini. The couple have 2 children, 7-year-old Thushar and 1-year-old Mrunalini.
Courtesy: Jacob K.Philip, Malayala Manorama, August 18, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
