A closer look
Audio and video compression changed the world, but the next frontier of the internet is downloading physical touch. To make remote surgery a reality, the tactile internet requires real-time feedback with zero lag, which is where haptic codecs come in. Institutes like Fraunhofer are creating advanced algorithms that compress the physical sensation of texture and resistance. By packaging these tactile forces into tiny, high-speed data packets transmitted over 5G, a surgeon in New York can perfectly feel the squish of a scalpel cutting into tissue via a robotic arm in Tokyo.
