Boston Chapter Meeting IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Tuesday, 13 March, 2001 6:00 PM Haptics: A Telerobotics Enabling Technology Michael D. McPartland, Ph.D. Senior Research Engineer SensAble Technologies SensAble Technologies is dedicated to revolutionizing the human-computer interface by bringing 3D Touch to the desktop. We are the leaders in the development and the commercialization of technology that allows users to interact with the computer in a much more intuitive and expressive manner, using the sense of touch. The ability of desktop computers to run powerful, 3D professional software has far outstripped users' ability to effectively work in 3D. The aging, 2D mouse interface has become the primary bottleneck to professional productivity in product design, animation, data analysis, medical simulation, and other areas. SensAble's award-winning system, which is based on the PHANTOM(tm) interface hardware, enables users to create, touch, and manipulate 3D digital objects with amazing realism. SensAble's 3D Touch technology allows doctors to touch and feel virtual tissue, sculptors to create and modify models, and designers to refine and evaluate designs. In addition to a "hands-on" demonstration, participants will be introduced to SensAble's FreeForm modeling software. The FreeForm CAD system fits comfortably into today's product and content creation processes. It bridges the gap between 2D "sketching" and 3D-production work. It can either supplement or replace physical modeling, allowing users to create and explore forms in 3D as freely and intuitively as they can in 2D with pencil and paper. You can import and work from conceptual sketches, 2D drawings, scanned models, or 3D engineered parts. FreeForm's "digital clay" does for clay and foam modeling what the word processor did for typing. It will blow your mind! Biography Dr. McPartland is a Senior Research Engineer at SensAble Technologies, where he works on the development and testing of cutting-edge hardware and software for human-computer interfaces. He received his Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo in 1994 in Aerospace Engineering, although his research focused primarily on Biomechanical Control Systems. Ask him about it. Much of Dr. McPartland's experience is in the defense industry, working for Washington DC consulting firm Metron Scientific and local DOD giant Textron. He has also held academic teaching appointments at both George Washington University and Harvard Medical School. The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society will meet on Tuesday, March 13, 2001, at SensAble Technologies, 15 Constitution Way, Woburn at 6:00 PM for informal discussions and for the formal presentation between 6:30 and 7:30 PM. The group will have a no-host dinner afterwards at Bertucci's, where more conversations can take place with the guest speaker. The meetings are open to the general public, and all are welcome at the dinner afterwards. For more information contact Bruce Levens at 508-271-1233 or BCL0@alum.mit.edu. Directions to SensAble Technologies 15 Constitution Way, Woburn MA 781-939-7483 If coming from the Waltham/Lexington/Burlington area: Take 128 (a.k.a. 95) North to Exit 36 (Washington St). Keep left at the fork in the ramp and turn left (north) onto Washington St. About 0.2 miles later, turn left onto Mishawum Rd. Turn right onto Commerce Way and proceed for about 0.3 miles and then turn right onto Constitution Way. The Woburn Mall is at the intersection of Mishawum Rd and Commerce Way. Bertuccis is on Commerce Way near the intersection. ------- This is the mailing list of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Central New England Chapter. Tell others who are interested in our meetings that they may subscribe to this list by sending a blank email message to: Robotics.Boston-subscribe@topica.com To unsubscribe, send a blank message to: Robotics.Boston-UNsubscribe@topica.com If you have any questions, contact the chapter secretary, Jay Sage, at Jay.Sage@ieee.org (mailto:Jay.Sage@ieee.org)