New Touch Sensitivity Techniques Can Make Virtual Reality More Real – DailyTech.com: Touch-sensitive force feedback systems can serve in applications such as long-distance robotic surgery, where the transmitted sensation of moving a scalpel through tissue could literally mean the difference between life and death. In fact, the limitations of these systems have been a stumbling block to more widespread usage of real-time collaborative applications, from telemedicine to remote repairs of satellites, undersea rigs or other sensitive equipment.

A joint research team from the Britain and the United States have devised a novel way to enhance touch-based interaction across the void, employing a technique called “rollback,” which uses software algorithms to predict and cancel out the effects of latency. In this way, touch-based devices can respond more normally by making subtle alterations in the virtual world while waiting for more accurate real-time data to arrive.
The researchers also reduced latency by using a peer-to-peer communications structure.