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    • Penn Haptics Open House: Interactive Exhibition of Hands-On Student Projects Dec. 10

    WHO: Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania

    28 University of Pennsylvania students in Dr. Kuchenbecker’s MEAM 625: Haptic Interfaces graduate-level course on science and technology of touch-based interactions for virtual environments, teleoperation and autonomous robots.  

    WHAT: Penn Haptics Open House: Interactive Exhibition of Student Projects    

    WHERE:      Main haptics research lab, Room 144 of the Towne Building, and satellite haptics classroom, Towne 195, 220 S. 33rd St.

    WHEN:         Friday, Dec. 10, 1-3p.m.

    Students will present eight class projects in hands-on demonstrations allowing visitors to:

    • Improve golf-putting accuracy by practicing golf swings with haptic guidance
    • Throw and catch a virtual ball that can be felt in your hand
    • Blindly navigate unknown areas using a smart cane that alerts you to overhead obstacles
    • Play a virtual drum that you can see, feel and hear all at once
    • Learn how to hit a tennis ball from a virtual haptic tennis coach
    • Try to locate the lump in a mock prostate using a tactile sensing array for robotic surgery
    • Kick a virtual haptic soccer ball and try to score a goal
    • Watch the PR2 robot automatically find objects on a table via tactile scanning

    The Open House is free and open to the public.

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