{"id":113470,"date":"2024-12-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_episode&#038;p=113470"},"modified":"2024-12-11T17:52:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:52:43","slug":"afference","status":"publish","type":"ftm_episode","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference","title":{"rendered":"Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>VR experiences are getting increasingly visually impressive. Some of the graphics in virtual worlds are so advanced that they seem almost indistinguishable from our world of reality. But there\u2019s still one key element that&#8217;s missing to create a fully immersive experience&nbsp; \u2013 a sense of touch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if we could hack our nervous systems so that virtual worlds also included a realistic sense of touch? Afference has found a way to create an interface between the digital realm and your nervous system with tech that talks directly to your nerves using small electrical signals, and we got an exclusive test of&nbsp; the company\u2019s harness, The Phantom.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, this groundbreaking tech can allow users to experience basic sensations, but over time it&#8217;ll be able to do far more, lending visual mediums a whole new dimension to speak through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VR experiences are getting increasingly visually impressive. Some of the graphics in virtual worlds are so advanced that they seem almost indistinguishable from our world of reality. But there\u2019s still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":113471,"menu_order":0,"template":"","ftm_taxonomy_fields":[],"ftm_taxonomy_challenges":[],"ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags":[],"class_list":["post-113470","ftm_episode","type-ftm_episode","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cThere&#039;s a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it&#039;s connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it&#039;s real to me.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThere&#039;s a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it&#039;s connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it&#039;s real to me.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freethink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HR_Afference_Web.jpg?resize=1200,630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"\u201cThere&#039;s a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it&#039;s connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it&#039;s real to me.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.","description":"\u201cThere's a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it's connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it's real to me.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.","og_description":"\u201cThere's a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it's connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it's real to me.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference","og_site_name":"Freethink","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HR_Afference_Web.jpg?resize=1200,630","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_description":"\u201cThere's a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it's connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it's real to me.\u201d","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference","name":"Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HR_Afference_Web.jpg?quality=75","datePublished":"2024-12-12T14:00:00+00:00","description":"\u201cThere's a very simple answer for why we need this. In one word, it's connection. Touch is what connects us to each other and it connects us to the world around us. And if I can actually reach and feel something, it's real to me.\u201d","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/afference#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HR_Afference_Web.jpg?quality=75","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/HR_Afference_Web.jpg?quality=75","width":3200,"height":1800,"caption":"A person wearing a gray shirt is extending their hand with rings on each finger against a dark background with a green glow."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/","name":"Freethink","description":"Move the world","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#organization","name":"Freethink Media","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/logo.svg","width":651,"height":124,"caption":"Freethink Media"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_episode\/113470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_episode"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ftm_episode"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_fields","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_fields?post=113470"},{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_challenges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_challenges?post=113470"},{"taxonomy":"ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ftm_taxonomy_hidden_tags?post=113470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}