digitalanalogue

digitalanalogue
TOUCH MEMB RANE TRANSMISSIONS
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01
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01
R Lost in Blizzard
By Marisa Kakoulas
By Lady Isabelle
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Maya - Veil of Illusion L02 //
02
R The Art of Touch: A Manifesto
By Petra Gemeinboeck
Teledildonics L
for a New Art Form
By Irina Danilova
Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace? L
Roy Ascott
Method And Apparatus For Interactive L
Transmission and Reception of Tactile
Information
03// // 03R On
the Soul
By Aristotle
04// // 04R Skin
By Weiner, Michael
The Internet: A General Introduction L
By Thomas Temme
05// // 05R How Substance Get Into (And Out Of)
Cells
By Dr. Richard G. Steane
june
03//
L
01//
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Teledildonics
By Marisa Kakoulas
http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id970/pg1/
Lost in Blizzard
By Lady Isabelle
www.sensualvenus.com
When sliding into the shiny black neoprene catsuit, be careful not to
tangle the wires that hang limp from the nodes carefully positioned
throughout the suit. It is a snug fit. Built in sensors, 36 in total, attach
to nipples, thighs and all parts in between. It doesn't look sexy, but its
purpose is highly erotic.
He was very attractive, his body was slim and slender. There was
something feline in him. When he entered the water, he did it with
elegance and precision. Not a drop of water escaped from the tank.
When his supple body slid next to mine in the soothing water, I became
excited. The feeling of him naked and close to me was so erotic.
In fact it looks silly. But so did everything else we wore in the 1980s
and people still got laid. Like shoulder pads and skinny ties, pastel
jackets and spiked hair of our singles bar past - this is fashion for
fucking in the future, without the cover charge.
We faced each other and in order to stretch out our legs we had to sit
with them intertwined. I don't know how long we spent staring at each
other like that, but we were like two teenage kids on the verge of
exploring each others bodies, daring to touch one another. We both
felt the intensity of the moment. Wanting to feel and touch ourselves.
In fact you don't even need to leave home. Just light a few candles,
get comfortable with your desktop and plug the suit in. Your printer
port anxiously awaits insertion. Staring lustfully at the body on the
screen, you slowly move your mouse and click on the body part you
wish to stimulate on your similarly suited cyberpartner. Do you want
to send a feather touch, strong vibration or some added heat? Doubleclick. Good. The sensors start vibrating in the pit of your knees. Not
that Tantric shit again, you think, but continue to play along. You tickle,
buzz and overheat until satisfaction then enjoy stretching out on your
bed, all to yourself.
Welcome to the world of Teledildonics. There is no death from disease
here. No unwanted pregnancies. No awkward morning after. And
arguably, no intimacy either.
It has been called the future of sex - as far back as ten years ago and it was supposed to be made a reality by the new millennium. The
year 2001 has come and the ability to touch a long distance lover
remains virtual with little hope of it becoming reality any time soon. At
least not for another year.
This is the second time the developers of the suit, Vivid Entertainment
(Vivid Video), a top adult video and online business based in Van Nuys
(California), has teased cyberfetishists with promises of the suit's
commercial availability. Vivid Video originally blamed the delay on FCC
approval, citing concerns over whether the wearer will get fried from
a dangerous electrical surge, particularly if the electronic signals are
being exchanged internationally between different delivery systems.
However, calls to the FCC as well as the FTC and FDA were met with
confusion - "A what? What do you do with that suit?" and at times,
some federally frowned upon giggles.
The water surrounded us, enveloping us with a unique comforting
warmth, our bodies merged in the water and we became as one single
being. Each movement, even slight, that Jonathan made in the soothing
water, was reverberating itself all over the surface of my skin, as if
through the ripples he was touching me and I could feel him sending
waves of pleasure through my spine. I did not feel cold anymore.
...
I whispered his name and he opened his cheerful blue eyes, enhanced
by superb long fair eyelashes. The flickering light of the fire danced
in them as he gazed at me and it made it more fascinating. It was if I
was falling under his spell, I wanted to offer myself to him, to feel him
against me, to cuddle against his skin, be in his arms, to feel his
masculine strength embracing me, to be close to him. Each nerve
ending of my skin was begging for this tender touch, I felt weak and
irresistant, totally offered to him as he smiled at me tenderly.
I was literally melting with happiness as I moved closer to him. I
stretched slowly like a cat, savouring that shared moment of intimacy.
I could feel him all against me now, his skin was transferring its warmth
to mine, I shivered with delight, abandoned, happy. I felt totally alive
now and I already knew that he had conquered me, I knew that I was
somehow in love with him.
01R
L
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Maya - Veil of Illusion
By Petra Gemeinboeck
www.evl.uic.edu/art/art_project.php3?indi=240
www.evl.uic.edu/beta/maya.html
The Art of Touch
A Manifesto for a New Art Form
By Irina Danilova
www.emory.edu/INTELNET/touch_manifesto.html
MANIBUS, NON OCULIS....
TOUCH ART is a new art form that is based on the sense of touch.
There are visual and auditory arts, as well as applied arts of taste
(cookery) and smell (perfumery) but the foundations of the tactile arts
have not yet been laid.
Touch as a sense had never been explored fully in aesthetic terms
even though it is one of our basic senses. Throughout our lives we
have enormous amount of different touch experiences. Why then
there are no art works based on this unique human feeling that
Aristotle considered to be quintessentially human?
In Hindu-Buddhist concept, Maya stands for the constant
movement of the universe, so powerfully masking the essence
of all matter that the phenomenal world of reality can only be
perceived behind a 'veil of illusion'.
The virtual environment of Maya solely materializes a communication
interface, whereby the space in between scales down to one single
layer, an elastic membrane that is spanned between the two remote
users. Processing and interpreting the data of camera images, it
becomes a tactile surface of intermediation that reacts sensitively to
every single touch of the user. Each site presents both users interfering
from both sides of the veil. Yet the representation of the data underlies
the play of the veil's forces, and gets thus continually transformed by
system's capability to interpret users' interplay and to memorize
previous time fragments.
Investigating the ambiguous relationship between the users and their
virtual representation, the only layer, through which the two participants
can perceive each other, represents the system's own reflection of
their dialogue.
…
The representation of data is ambiguous
Lacan’s, Mirror Stage’, marking a phase in his model of, becoming a
subject’, describes the relationship between the ‘self’ and the reflected
image of the ‘self’, which is mistaken to be the true ‘self’. Lacan
regarded this reflection as the imaginary, other’, onto which we ‘project’
our ‘self’. Maya explores the relationship between the ‘self’ and its
virtual representation (avatar). Thereby, the environment, the interface,
and the avatar become one element—the data layer in between two
people. The system is thereby the only mediator between the two,
representing its own reflection of the dialogue.
"...Touch reaches in man the maximum of discriminative accuracy.
While in respect of all the other senses we fall below many species
of animals, in respect of touch we far excel all other species in
exactness of discrimination. That is why man is the most intelligent
of all animals. This is confirmed by the fact that it is to differences
in the organ of touch and to nothing else that the differences
between man and man in respect of natural endowment are due;
men whose flesh is hard are ill-endowed by nature, men whose
flesh is soft, wellendowed. " Aristotle. On the Soul. Book 2, part 9,
(421a 20-25)
Like visual art is not only for those who cannot hear, and music is not
only for those who cannot see, touch art is for everyone. It is a huge
blank field of artistic exploration, and we are ready to start to fill it out.
Touch art can be considered a kind of the body art because, unlike
visual and audio art, it excludes any distance between the body and
the object. In some cases, touch art installations might require
darkness and silence. Touch is the most intimate sense of our body
that could create a variety of new powerful art forms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Touch Art was first projected as a distinct art form by the cultural and
literary scholar Mikhail Epstein in Moscow (Russia), in his book "New
Sectarianism" (1984-1988; first published in 1993).
Mikhail Epstein (Emory University) translated from Russian by Eve
Adler (Middlebury College)
"Things ought to be made by hand, to bear the stamp of man,
to absorb his warmth. This is the only way they can join the ranks of
the integral things of which signs are merely one-dimensional
projections. A thing ought to exude its meaning not abstractly but
palpably, just as it exudes warmth or an aroma. The feel of a thing in
the hand should be like a friendly squeeze. It's no accident that our
times have seen the birth of a new kind of art that addresses the
02R
by touch alone, in darkness and silence; for the "toucher" (cf.
"spectator," "listener"), the surface of a thing becomes an object of
the most subtle experiences, the arena of an artistic quest. "Oh if we
could recover the shame of sighted fingers / and the bulging joy of
recognition (O. Mandelshtam). Our tactile art is a response to this
poetic yearning.
The dialogue is only interference
Movements of the remote user is recorded by a webcam, processed,
analysed, and interpreted as a kind of ‘height map’, which
deforms the elastic surface. This bilateral mold of the
users then continues to be transformed by the textile-like
particle force interaction. As the sound waves are reflected
by the (virtual) elastically moving surface, the speech of the
participants becomes transformed as well.
The translation between the two physical sides of the veil
Responding to the uniqueness of each remote site, each of the two
sides of the membrane changes its ‘penetration properties’ based on
the activities of the user (on site). The two physical sides (projection
walls) show thus a slightly different representation of the dialogue.
The diversity in interpretation also refers to and emphasis the translation
capabilities of the system, which can neither be controlled by the user
here nor be comprehended by the user there.
Whereas the spectator and the listener are dealing with projections
or symbols of things, the toucher is dealing with the thing itself, a
continuation, as it were, of his own hand and body. The visual and
auditory senses are overly concerned with signs; they are too intellectual
and ideological, always looking for truth somewhere beyond the things,
rather than in the things themselves. Sight and hearing are subject
to illusions it's common enough to "have visions" or "hear voices" but
the tactile sense doesn't lie; it touches the very reality of things. After
all, touch is not the perception of a conventional signal far from its
source, like light rays or sound waves; touch is "direct access" and
even assimilation: flesh with flesh, like with like. The apostle Thomas
didn't trust his own eyes and ears, but insisted on touching the flesh
of the risen Christ with his fingers for which he received the Teacher's
blessing. Faith is like the sense of touch, groping for what can
really be trusted. . . .
This is why we are learning to sense things in the dark, like blind
men developing their capacity for spiritual sight. A thing submerged
in darkness begins emitting a spiritual light that can be sensed by
touch. This is the basis of the Thingwrights' new art form, "sculpturein-the-dark," or tactile sculpture. No one has ever seen these sculptures,
which are submerged in the permanent darkness of underground
exhibition halls. Only the sculptor, perhaps, in a moment of weakness
or spiritual exhaustion, may have allowed himself a peek at the work
of his own hands, a work designed to be sensed by touch alone. For
all we know, the visible form of these statues may be ugly, even
hideous. But how much they express to sensitive fingers ranging over
their delicate tendrils and subtle ligatures, probing all their poetry of
invisible and undissembling beauty, the immediacy of their continuity
with our own hands, our own bodies! Sculpture-in-the-dark summons
forth the deepest artistic attention not to the mere signs of being, but
to being as such, in all the purity of its presence. (R.A., "The Twelfth
Muse: On the Art of Touch")
We have visual and auditory arts, as well as applied arts of taste and
smell (gastronomy, perfumery). But the foundations of the tactile arts
have not yet been laid. Only in the single sphere of the amatory caress
have the laws of touch been worked out, in ancient treatises like the
Kama Sutra. But why does touch have to be connected only with lust,
with passion? Couldn't it just as well be an instrument of sobriety, of
sensing the pure form of things? Sobriety is the perception of a
boundary, the capacity of distinguishing one thing from another. The
mind gets drunk when it plunges into the dark, deceptive depth of
things; touch sobers it up by adhering strictly to the surface, probing
the boundaries of things, ascertaining their separateness and
impermeability.
L
03//
Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?
By Roy Ascott
www.telematic.walkerart.org/overview/overview_ascott.html
The past decade has seen the two powerful technologies of computing
and telecommunications converge into one field of operations that
has drawn into its embrace other electronic media, including video,
sound synthesis, remote-sensing, and a variety of cybernetic systems.
These phenomena are exerting enormous influence upon society and
on individual behaviour; they seem increasingly to be calling into
question the very nature of what it is to be human, to be creative, to
think and to perceive, and indeed our relationship to each other and
to the planet as a whole. The "telematic culture" that accompanies
the new developments consists of a set of behaviours, ideas, media,
values, and objectives that are significantly unlike those that have
shaped society since the Enlightenment. New cultural and scientific
metaphors and paradigms are being generated, new models and
representations of reality are being invented, new expressive means
are being manufactured.
Telematics is a term used to designate computer-mediated
communications networking involving telephone, cable, and satellite
links between geographically dispersed individuals and institutions
that are interfaced to data-processing systems, remote sensing devices,
and capacious data storage banks (1). It involves the technology of
interaction among human beings and between the human mind and
artificial systems of intelligence and perception. The individual user
of networks is always potentially involved in a global net, and the
world is always potentially in a state of interaction with the individual.
Thus, across the vast spread of telematics networks worldwide, the
quantity of data processed and the density of information exchanged
is incalculable. The ubiquitous efficacy of the telematic medium is not
in doubt, but the question in human terms, from the point of view of
culture and creativity, is: What is the content?
Our sensory experience becomes extrasensory, as our vision is
enhance by the extrasensory devices of telematic perception. The
computer deals invisibly with the invisible. It processes those
connections, collusions, systems, forces and fields, transformations
and transferences, chaotic assemblies, and higher orders of organisation
that lie outside our vision, outside the gross level of material perception
afforded by our natural senses. Totally invisible to our everyday unaided
perception, for example, is the underlying fluidity of matter, the
indeterminate dance of electrons, the "snap, crackle, and pop" of
quanta, the tunnelling and transpositions, nonlocal and superluminal,
that the new physics presents. It is these patterns of events, these
new exhilarating metaphors of existence—nonlinear, uncertain, layered,
and discontinuous—that the computer can redescribe. With the
computer, and brought together in the telematic embrace, we can
hope to glimpse the unseeable, to grasp the ineffable chaos of
becoming, the secret order of disorder. And as we come to see more,
we shall see the computer less and less. It will become invisible in its
immanence, but its presence will be palpable to the artist engaged
telematically in the world process of autopoiesis, planetary self-creation.
The technology of computerised media and telematic systems is no
On the Soul
By Aristotle
Translated by J. A. Smith
www./classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.2.ii.html
Book III
Part 11
Whatever can be said of what is tangible, can be said of touch, and
vice versa; if touch is not a single sense but a group of senses, there
must be several kinds of what is tangible. It is a problem whether
touch is a single sense or a group of senses. It is also a problem,
what is the organ of touch; is it or is it not the flesh (including what
in certain animals is homologous with flesh)? On the second view,
flesh is 'the medium' of touch, the real organ being situated farther
inward. The problem arises because the field of each sense is according
to the accepted view determined as the range between a single pair
of contraries, white and black for sight, acute and grave for hearing,
bitter and sweet for taste; but in the field of what is tangible we find
several such pairs, hot cold, dry moist, hard soft, &c. This problem
finds a partial solution, when it is recalled that in the case of the other
senses more than one pair of contraries are to be met with, e.g. in
sound not only acute and grave but loud and soft, smooth and rough,
&c.; there are similar contrasts in the field of colour. Nevertheless we
are unable clearly to detect in the case of touch what the single subject
is which underlies the contrasted qualities and corresponds to sound
in the case of hearing.
To the question whether the organ of touch lies inward or not (i.e.
whether we need look any farther than the flesh), no indication in
favour of the second answer can be drawn from the fact that if the
object comes into contact with the flesh it is at once perceived. For
even under present conditions if the experiment is made of making
a web and stretching it tight over the flesh, as soon as this web is
touched the sensation is reported in the same manner as before, yet
it is clear that the or is gan is not in this membrane. If the membrane
could be grown on to the flesh, the report would travel still quicker.
The flesh plays in touch very much the same part as would be played
in the other senses by an air-envelope growing round our body; had
we such an envelope attached to us we should have supposed that
it was by a single organ that we perceived sounds, colours, and smells,
and we should have taken sight, hearing, and smell to be a single
sense. But as it is, because that through which the different movements
are transmitted is not naturally attached to our bodies, the difference
of the various sense-organs is too plain to miss. But in the case of
touch the obscurity remains.
There must be such a naturally attached 'medium' as flesh, for no
living body could be constructed of air or water; it must be something
solid. Consequently it must be composed of earth along with these,
which is just what flesh and its analogue in animals which have no
true flesh tend to be. Hence of necessity the medium through which
are transmitted the manifoldly contrasted tactual qualities must be a
body naturally attached to the organism. That they are manifold is
clear when we consider touching with the tongue; we apprehend at
the tongue all tangible qualities as well as flavour. Suppose all the
rest of our flesh was, like the tongue, sensitive to flavour, we should
//
03R
longer to be viewed simply as a set of rather complicated tools
extending the range of painting and sculpture, performed music, or
published literature. It can now be seen to support a whole new field
of creative endeavour that is as radically unlike each of those established
artistic genres as they are unlike each other . A new vehicle of
consciousness, of creativity and expression, has entered our repertoire
of being. While it is concerned with both technology and poetry, the
virtual and the immaterial as well as the palpable and concrete, the
telematic may be categorised as neither art nor science, while being
allied in many ways to the discourses of both. The further development
of this field will clearly mean an interdependence of artistic, scientific,
and technological competencies and aspirations and, urgently, on the
formulation of a transdisciplinary education.
So, to link the ancient image-making process of Navajo sand painting
to the digital imaging of modern super computers through common
silicon, which serves them both as pigment and processor chop, is
more than ironic whimsy. The holistic ambition of Native American
culture is parallelled by the holistic potentiality of telematic art. More
than a technological expedient for the interchange of information,
networking provides the very infrastructure for spiritual interchange
that could lead to the harmonisation and creative development of the
whole planet. With this prospectus however naively optimistic and
transcendental it may appear in our current fin-de-siecle gloom, the
metaphor of love in the telematic embrace may not be entirely
misplaced.
have identified the sense of taste and the sense of touch; what saves
us from this identification is the fact that touch and taste are not always
found together in the same part of the body. The following problem
might be raised. Let us assume that every body has depth, i.e. has
three dimensions, and that if two bodies have a third body between
them they cannot be in contact with one another; let us remember
that what is liquid is a body and must be or contain water, and that if
two bodies touch one another under water, their touching surfaces
cannot be dry, but must have water between, viz. the water which
wets their bounding surfaces; from all this it follows that in water two
bodies cannot be in contact with one another. The same holds of two
bodies in air-air being to bodies in air precisely what water is to bodies
in water-but the facts are not so evident to our observation, because
we live in air, just as animals that live in water would not notice that
the things which touch one another in water have wet surfaces. The
problem, then, is: does the perception of all objects of sense take
place in the same way, or does it not, e.g. taste and touch requiring
contact (as they are commonly thought to do), while all other senses
perceive over a distance? The distinction is unsound; we perceive
what is hard or soft, as well as the objects of hearing, sight, and smell,
through a 'medium', only that the latter are perceived over a greater
distance than the former; that is why the facts escape our notice. For
we do perceive everything through a medium; but in these cases the
fact escapes us. Yet, to repeat what we said before, if the medium for
touch were a membrane separating us from the object without our
observing its existence, we should be relatively to it in the same
condition as we are now to air or water in which we are immersed;
in their case we fancy we can touch objects, nothing coming in between
us and them. But there remains this difference between what can be
touched and what can be seen or can sound; in the latter two cases
we perceive because the medium produces a certain effect upon us,
whereas in the perception of objects of touch we are affected not by
but along with the medium; it is as if a man were struck through his
shield, where the shock is not first given to the shield and passed on
to the man, but the concussion of both is simultaneous.
In general, flesh and the tongue are related to the real organs of touch
and taste, as air and water are to those of sight, hearing, and smell.
Hence in neither the one case nor the other can there be any perception
of an object if it is placed immediately upon the organ, e.g. if a white
object is placed on the surface of the eye. This again shows that what
has the power of perceiving the tangible is seated inside. Only so
would there be a complete analogy with all the other senses. In their
case if you place the object on the organ it is not perceived, here if
you place it on the flesh it is perceived; therefore flesh is not the organ
but the medium of touch.
L
04//
Method And Apparatus For Interactive
Transmission And Reception Of Tactile
Information
Skin
www.cooltheburn.com/learn/body/skin.html
By Weiner, Michael
www.tillc.com/patents/tactile.html
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to computers, multimedia,
robotics and sensory devices, and, more particularly, to a method and
apparatus for interactive transmission and reception of tactile
information.
BACKGROUND ART
Computers are becoming more and more ubiquitous in our daily
lives, and assuming more and more functionality, from business to
entertainment. Computer interaction with humans still lags far behind
interpersonal, interactive human experience. One obvious shortcoming
is that computers do not ordinarily touch human beings. Humans
typically interact with computers by typing at a keyboard, or by
manipulating a mouse or other pointing device, to direct the computers
to perform tasks.
Recently, a mouse was introduced to the market that provides tactile
feedback, providing the sense of physical movement and vibration to
the user in the form of the mouse. Steering wheels and joysticks with
tactile feedback for playing video games(such as race car, driving)
have also been recently introduced. Motion picture studios sometimes
include hydraulic devices to augment feelings of inertia and movement.
When humans meet, and particularly when humans convey feelings
such as affection, love, comfort, they frequently use the sense of touch
to do so. Computers, telephones, television sets and other inanimate
objects do not convey feelings using the sense of touch, and heretofore
it has generally not been imagined that they could do so.
As humans continue to travel and move away from their families,
and as computer connectivity proliferates, methods of adding human
tactile feedback to computer interaction can add greatly to the interactive
experience.
Consider, for example, the bedridden invalid whose son or daughter
calls (ore-mails) from a remote site, perhaps a ship at sea, or, in the
future, a space station or remote planet. The conveyance of the
message, "I love you, Mom," would, in person, often involve a stroke
of the check or hair, a touch on the arm, a soft hand on the back, a
hand placed on the back of a hand. Computers presently do not
facilitate this tactile conveyance of emotion.
Further, lovers separated by long distances may engage in simulated
affections and even sexual stimulation, primarily engaging voice,
words, and visuals, within the capacity of the available means of
today's computing systems. While this is a controversial use of
computers, it appears to be a popular one. The interactive experience,
whether communicative, sensual, affectionate, loving, or sexual, would
clearly be enhanced by the same loving touch, gentle stroke, -or other
tactile conveyance.
The Living Barrier
"A layer of skin, usually less than one-fourth of an inch (5-mm) thick,
is the only barrier between the body's interior, with its delicate cells
and finely blanched fluids, and the harsh, changing conditions of the
outside world. Yet we rarely give our skin a second thought-unless it
becomes bruised, cut, burned or otherwise damaged."
"The Body's Surface"
Skin. It's pretty amazing, if you stop to think about it. The average
adult has two square yards of it, constituting 15 percent of their total
body weight. Each square inch contains an average of 625 sweat
glands, 65 hair follicles and 19,000 sensory glands. At its thinnest the
eyelid, it protects the delicate cornea and at its thickest, the bottom
of the feet it cushions the skeleton, making movement possible.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body. It covers a person
completely from head to toe. Skin is waterproof and tough enough to
protect someone from germs and dirt. Skin is elastic and flexible, it
regulates fluid loss and body temperature. Skin contains nerves which
send the brain messages about the texture or surface of things that
we touch. The skin gives a person his/her identity by defining the color
and shape a person sees in a mirror.
//
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The problem is that computers today, for the most part, start and stop
on dimensions primarily involving screen interaction and/or audio
interaction.
There is clearly a need, then, for integrated, interactive, means of
tactile communication.
2.e see the first indications of this need in the prior art in the form of
"telepresence."
DARPA has funded exciting methods for remote operative surgery,
so the skilled surgeon can actually wield the scalpel and the suture
on a patient in a remote battlefield or a ship at sea. But not so the
loving touch or the gentle caress that mother and son, or lovers, would
wish to impose on one another if separated.
The extension of interactive tactile methods can eventually apply
to many media, including CD-ROM, television, motion pictures, the
Internet, telephone, etc.
For this to occur we will need devices that are dependable, affordable,
perform a reasonable degree of simulation of the human tactile touch,
and share a common
protocol of interactive commands, so the devices of multiple
manufacturers can plug and play with one another. We need for a
touch to remain a touch and not turn into a punch, or a push, due to
some system snafu or protocol problem. We want to adapt the
technology so that we do not run into the unfortunate problem that a
child away at college is unable to give grandma a hug and stroke on
the cheek because the systems do not interact.
The sexual aspect of human interaction remains one of great
controversy. Yet the sexual use of the Internet is reported to be one
of the more popular pursuits. In an age of sexually transmitted disease,
the availability of computer interaction that can also convey a gentle
human touch and a common protocol provides a potentially valuable
option for partners separated by long distances, and for those who
wish to practice abstinence.
We acknowledge that technology and the ethics and moral values of
different technologists may frequently be out of synch. Whether or
not an individual approves3of, or elects to use, this aspect of human
tactile interactive tools, the means to do so have thus far not been
effectively developed or deployed. This invention seeks to pave the
way for all methods of interactive human tactile communications,
working in conjunction with standard computers and networks.
During the early 1900's efforts to create player-pianos which
replicated the exact sound, expression and tonal range of human
pianists were tried, and the results debated. For years it was believed
that a true replication of the player piano was not possible. Time and
effort, however, gave way to systems such as the Ampico and theDuoArt, which faithfully reproduce the playing of the original human artists
in such away that, when the reproduction was played to a large
audience of music critics, the difference could not be detected between
the human pianist and the machine simulation.
We anticipate that the ability of humans to create simulation robotics
that replicate the touch of the human will increase dramatically over
Microscopic view of the skin
on the palm of the hand.
Epidermis
The skin has two layers. The epidermis is the thin, outer layer of the
skin. Oil that is secreted through glands make the skin waterproof.
The outermost layer of the epidermis is made up of dead skin cells.
These dead skin cells are replaced by new cells that grow underneath.
The skin grows new cells constantly.
Microscopic view of a sweat
gland.
Dermis
The second inner layer of the skin is called the dermis. The dermis
is filled with blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles and sweat glands.
The blood vessels feed the skin growth cells and carry away waste.
They are able to open wide to bring more blood to the surface of the
body or they can close a little to keep the warm blood deep inside the
body. These blood vessels also help control or regulate the body
temperature to keep it between 79 degrees and 99 degrees Fahrenheit
(normal body temperature).
Microscopic view of a dead skin cell.
Each year, up to nine pounds (four kg) of your skin wears away and
flakes off your body's surface. The skin that falls from your body
collects as dust, which you can find around the house. You do not
lose this amount of weight, because your skin is constantly renewing
itself. This renewal takes place in the skin's outer layer, the epidermis.
time. To a human immersed in a virtual reality system, seeing the
face and hearing the voice of a loved one, the gentle touch, given at
just the same time and with just the same duration and pressure of
the remote loved one, will add dramatically to the overall human
interactive experience, and as systems improve, the degree of reality,
and emotional value, will grow with the technology. Similarly, to the
human enmeshed in a virtual reality situation in which a lover emerges
and makes love to the user, the feeling of touch will hopefully enhance
the experience.
Similarly, as with the kiss, the caress, and the more intimate aspects
of human interaction, such as lovemaking, the same set of objectives
can add dramatically to these experiences as well. As with other forms
of human sexual communications and practices, these are often
private matters and of much greater and higher value when practiced
within the confines of a loving relationship, such as marriage. The
graphical detail often demeans the spiritual aspect of sexuality, and
brings to the description of aspects of this invention a delicate challenge
for the inventor, Vis-A-vis the teachings required under the patent law.
We will attempt to move forward with delicate care, and the proper
degree of balance.
In any human interaction, both the timing and the selection of the
specific tactile communication chosen has great meaning, and is often
part of the unique signature of the personality of the communicator,
within the context of the relationship, at that moment in time. The lover
whose caress continues after the orgasm, for example, is often cited
in literature and in discourse as an excellent lover.
What is needed is the means to facilitate all these aspects of successful
interactivity, and replication of all the subtleties of the interaction,
including tactile pressure, duration, graduation, and most importantly,
the exact timing and integration with other critical dynamics: the words,
the tone, the timing, integrated with other aspects of visual and audio
experience.
Cells in the lower part of the epidermis are always multiplying. Their
"offspring" pass upward, gradually becoming filled with a tough fibrous
substance called keratin. By the time they reach the surface, the cells
are hard, flat and dead - ready to be worn away. This continual cell
sacrifice in the epidermis protects the lower layer, the dermis, which
contains delicate blood vessels, nerves and touch sensors."
L
05//
The Internet: A General Introduction
By Thomas Temme
www.wi.fh-osnabrueck.de/tutor/mk/communic/internet/protocol.htm
TCP/IP Protocol
Any form of communication will only take place if the communication
partners can understand each other. They must share a common
language. Transferred to computer-mediated-communication, this
means that computers in a network share a common protocol.
The standard basic protocols of the Internet are called ´TCP/IP´
(Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). Each computer
within the network has a worldwide unique IP-address. The IP takes
care that each file sent via the Internet reaches its destination computer
/ destination-IP address and does not go astray. The travelroute of
data packages between network points is determined by routers.
Files are not sent as a whole, but in small packets that may take
different routes to their destination. TCP is responsible for breaking
up and reassembling these files.
How Substances Get Into (And Out Of) Cells
By Dr. Richard G. Steane
www.web.ukonline.co.uk/webwise/spinneret/life/osmsis.htm
Background information about the physics and chemistry of diffusion
in fluids
The term fluids comprises gases (including vapours), and liquids
(including solutions) which consist of particles in constant motion, but
gases' (and vapours') particles move faster.
Liquids have a fixed volume, but the others can expand into the
maximum space available. In biological applications, these particles
are usually either molecules or ions.
The random 3-dimensional movement of these moving particles in a
fluid explains diffusion - a gradual spreading or migration of particles,
intermingling as far as possible with their surroundings.
Diffusion is not involved in mixing due to currents caused by pressure
differences, or convection, e.g. draughts, winds, pumped liquids, etc.
In diffusion, we always think that particles will move from high to low
concentration, i.e. down along a concentration gradient. If there is no
such difference, no net movement occurs, but we say a dynamic
equilibrium exists.
SPEED OF DIFFUSION
Diffusion is faster in gases than in liquids, and at higher temperatures,
because heat speeds up the process by making particles move faster.
Look at this picture of a cell alongside a blood vessel.
Internet communication by TCP/IP
Addresses
As already described, each computer is identified by a worldwide
unique IP-address. These addresses are made up by sets of threedigit numbers. From the left towards the right side these numbers
show more precisely where the respective computer is located.
//
05R
A typical IP-address
131.173.133.36
Uni-Osnabrück.Fachbereich FbWi.SpecificPC
from general towards more precise
PERMEABILITY OF MEMBRANES
Most natural (and some Man-made) membranes can be thought of
as having extremely tiny pores or holes of various sizes; such partially
permeable membranes allow some substances to pass but not others,
depending on the relative particle sizes.
In general for human beings it is easier to understand and to memorize
symbolic rather than digital addresses. Therefore the system of
´domain-names´ (DNS) was established. Domain-names are unique,
too. Due to the high increase of Servers that are connected to the
Internet the resources of the current system of Internet addresses will
soon be exhausted. Therefore at the moment a new system is being
developed.
This effect is responsible for 2 phenomena which Biologists (including
examiners) think are important: OSMOSIS and DIALYSIS.
A typical domain-address
Wi.FH-Osnabrueck.DE
THE PROCESS OF OSMOSIS
Osmosis is a special form of diffusion: the MOVEMENT OF WATER
from a dilute solution to a more concentrated one through a PARTIALLY
PERMEABLE MEMBRANE.
This type of membrane (also called semi-permeable) allows only
water, but not other (dissolved) substances to pass through.
Internet-computers only understand IP-addresses. Therefore each
organization connected to the net, must have a computer (nameserver)
which translates domain-names into IP-addresses.
The endings of domain names help users to identify where an Internetcomputer is located.This is important, because especially in times of
high net traffic loading time for files very often positively correlates
with distance.
A major feature of the Internet is communication via e-Mail.
An e-Mail address consists of the user name and the domain name.
These are always separated by ´@´.
A typical e-Mail-address
[email protected]
User@Domain-name
Addresses on the WWW contain additional information:
A typical WWW-address
http://www.wi.fh-osnabrueck.de/personal/index.htm
protocol://internet-service.domain-address/path
Client-Server-Principle
Computer-mediated-communication (CMC) within the Internet is based
on the Client-Server-Principle. Communication between two remote
computers always follows the same pattern:
All cells are surrounded by a cell membrane, which is partially
permeable, and the cytoplasm contains dissolved substances (solutes),
e.g. sugars, salts, proteins. Whether or not water enters or leaves the
cell depends on the relative concentrations of the cytoplasm and the
fluid surrounding them.
Machine A requests some information which in return is provided by
machine B. This principle allows interactive communication.
Client-Server Principle
A Server is the software running on a computer, which provides
information to the Internet on the basis of a certain protocol.
The Client is software on a user´s computer enabling
access to the information provided by Servers, e.g.
WWW-browser like Netscape, Microsoft Internet
Explorer, Mosaic or Opera.
The information that is exchanged is often referred to as
Content.
Basically Push-Technology is based on the same communication
principle.
digitalanalogue
TOUCH MEMB RANE TRANSMISSIONS
touch v
1.
vti to put a part of the body,
especially the fingertips, in contact with
something so as to feel it
n
trans- prefix
1.
across, on the other side of,
beyond
2.
through
3.
indicating change, transfer, or
conversion
mem·brane n
1.
a thin flexible sheet of tissue
connecting, covering, lining, or
separating various parts or organs in
animal and plant bodies, or forming the
external wall of a cell
b
@submerge.org.uk