Now with the popularity of Internet technology, consumers no longer need to step out from home but still able to purchase any items through online system and it will be delivered to your door steps easily. However, one major drawback is consumers are still unable to touch or get a feel on the items before deciding for the purchase. Now with the new technology breakthrough from NTT DoCoMo, it may able to bridge the gap to make the online shopping more pleasurable one. Just recently, the giant Japanese service provider has demonstrated a new technology, named as tactile-kinesthetic sense media that can transmit the kinesthetic senses to the receiver ends through existing network infrastructure.

During the demonstration, two rotational handles were used with one serves as a transmitter handle to sense the touch and feel of the actual object and it will be converted to electrical signal that can be transmitted through existing network to the other end, which will be analyzed and converted back through its rotational angle sensor, motor and provide kinesthetic sense on consumers’ hand. Just imagine, now consumers can touch and feel on the clothes or any object to determine its hardness before deciding to make payment for online purchase. This will definitely help them to make the right decision instead of relying on text description, still images or even video clips that are still lacking of persuasive power.

Besides suitable for online shopping, the technology can also be used in many areas such as medical, industrial segments and etc. Since this is still in early stage, there are some obstacles that need to be resolved before it can be practically used in commercial world. And one of them is the relatively long latency time that exceeds the stringent requirements of 30ms to be able to sense by consumers for more reality feeling. Nevertheless, this is definitely a major milestone that makes the technology closer to consumer space.