Tactile Displays: a short overview and recent developments

Tactation is the sensation perceived by the sense of touch. Tactation is based on the skin receptors. The skin nerves can be stimulated by mechanical, electrical or thermal stimuli. Apart from fibers for pain, skin has six more types of receptors. A review of the state of the art concerning the physiological and technological principles, considerations and characteristics, as well as latest implementations of micro-actuator based tactile graphic displays and the relative software interfaces structures and representations is presented. Fabrication technologies are reviewed in order to demonstrate the potential in tactile applications. Existing electronic Braille displays for accessibility are limited to text-based information. Graphic tactile displays enable for viewing images by the sense of touch on a reusable surface and substitution of the visual/auditory sense. Applications include education, engineering/artistic design, web surfing, and viewing of art and photographs. Tactile substitution can be used in augmenting accessibility for the blind or deaf in order to: (a) to enhance access to computer graphical user interfaces, (b) to enhance mobility in controlled environments. In general tactation based interfaces may allow communication of visual information to the brain in situations where the visual or hearing system is already overloaded such as race car drivers, airplane pilots, operating rooms, virtual reality and tele-presence

Quantum Cryptography: The Ultimate Solution to Secure Data Transmission?

Abstract. Quantum Cryptography is assumed as a next generation cryptographic system that may replace the public key protocol. The advantage of quantum cryptography over traditional key exchange methods is that the exchange of information can be shown to be secure in a very strong sense, without making assumptions about the intractability of certain mathematical problems. Today, Quantum Cryptography is rapidly moving out of the lab and into the telecommunications mainstream offering commercial quantum cryptography and key distribution systems based solely on quantum first principles. The question is: could Quantum Cryptography be the ultimate solution to secure data transmission? This paper presents some recent developments in the field and investigates the guarantees offered by the proposed protocols.

Tactile Display Applications: A State of the Art Survey

Tactation is the sensation perceived by the sense of touch.\ud Kinesthetic information describes the relative positions and movements\ud of body parts as well as muscular e®ort when touching and manipulat-\ud ing objects. Haptic perception involves both tactile perception through\ud the skin and kinesthetic perception of the position and movement of the\ud joints and muscles,through the skin of our ¯ngers and the position of our\ud ¯ngers. A tactile display is a human-computer interface that utilizes tac-\ud tile only signals to reproduce the tactile parameters of an object such as\ud shape, surface texture, roughness and temperature. Tactile interfaces are\ud used in virtual environments, and as a complement or substitution of the\ud visual or auditory presentation of information. In this paper we present\ud a review of the state of the art regarding the latest applications and\ud software for tactile interfaces, in areas such as graphic display, medicine,\ud military and engineering aiding the sensory impaired

Tactile Information Flow Ontology

Abstract- Tactile displays are interfaces that enable users to access information through the human skin using the sense of tactation. In order for the software to better enhance the tactile information generation, flow and perception and also drive tactile interfaces, we need a formal definition of tactile information. In this article, we propose a model for tactile information flow using ontologies. The proposed model analyzes the existing knowledge in tactile information and helps defining the types of information that take part in the tactile information flow. The new model can be used to identify how tactile displays can enhance perception of information and human-computer interaction and assist the development of software for tactile displays

5G mm wave networks leveraging enhanced fiber-wireless convergence for high-density environments : the 5G-PHOS approach

Analog optical fronthaul for 5G network architectures is currently being promoted as a bandwidth- and energy-efficient technology that can sustain the data-rate, latency and energy requirements of the emerging 5G era. This paper presents 5G-PHOS project approach, which relies on a new optical fronthaul architecture that can effectively synergize optical transceiver, optical add/drop multiplexer and optical beamforming integrated photonics towards a DSP-assisted analog fronthaul, administered by means of a Medium Transparent Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (MT-DBA) protocol for seamless and medium-transparent 5G small-cell networks