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Smiling nervously, the young woman walks forward in a straight line. Suddenly, she veers to the right. She stumbles and stops, attempting to regain her balance, and continues to walk forward. And then she veers off to the left.
No, she's not intoxicated. The young lady's vestibular system, which controls her sense of movement and balance, has been thrown off-kilter by two weak electrical currents delivered just behind her ears.
This sort of electrical stimulation is known as galvanic vestibular stimulation, or GVS. When a weak DC current is delivered to the mastoid behind your ear, your body responds by shifting your balance toward the anode. The stronger the current, the more powerful its pull. If it is strong enough, it not only throws you off balance but alters the course of your movement.
GVS has been known about for at least a century, but it attracted relatively little interest until the last 20 years. If researchers at the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communication Science Laboratories have their way, that interest may soon accelerate--and even go commercial.
At the 2005 SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Los Angeles this week, NTT researchers debuted a device designed to exploit the effects of GVS. Known as "Shaking the World," the project is the result of research carried out by NTT researcher Taro Maeda. Maeda and his colleagues constructed a headphone-like apparatus to deliver the electrical current and a small radio control to direct the strength and direction of the signal. Whoever wears such headphones can be steered by remote control.
Conference attendees lined up to try to maintain their balance as an NTT spokesperson gently steered them left and right. Some attempted to counteract the current's effects, while others almost ran into the crowd of onlookers as they stumbled haplessly along. But nearly everyone was curious.
Where might this research lead?
The most persuasive commercial applications of Maeda's GVS device will most likely be in gaming; researchers put together a crude virtual racing game to demonstrate how GVS heightened the perception of centrifugal force as users watch the car wind its way around the track on a video screen. Manabu Sakurai, NTT's marketing manager, says the company is currently investigating whether or not gamers would be interested in the device. Flight simulators are another area of interest.
"Many people talk about that," Sakurai explained. "Because GVS causes you to feel the same kinds of motion as a large-scale flight simulator, it could be a much simpler and more cost-effective way to train people."
NTT researchers also point, rather improbably, to GVS's potential for collision avoidance. A demonstration video shows a young man walking down the street nearly run over by a passing motorcycle, steered to safety at the last minute by a guardian angel wielding a remote control. But wouldn’t that require that people wear electric nodes behind their ears 24 hours a day?
Well, yes. And according to Maeda, the long-term effects of GVS are unknown. But he plans to continue investigating ways to bring the phenomenon to the public.
