Dr. Pijuan Yu works on the prototype haptic display technology during a visit to Texas A&M's School of Engineering Medicine campus in Houston. Credit: Emily Oswald/Texas A&M Engineering
Dr. Pijuan Yu sits at his lab station, focused on the task at hand. He is feeling for a lump. The glass wall to his right reveals other students and researchers as they pass, but his attention remains steady. Two rubbery samples simulating human neck tissue lie on a smooth black tabletop. A dark cloth covers the first, preventing Yu from seeing clues in the material.
Yu takes his time considering what he feels. There's a method to examining the phantoms, as he calls them—center, left, right, up, down, back to center. He evaluates both samples before correctly identifying which has the lump.
Simple enough.
Except Yu never touched either sample. He wasn't even in the same room.
