tem that's connected between two PCs. The system uses a virtual reality data glove to capture the hardness or softness of an object being felt by a person. This feeling is then communicated instantaneously to another person seated at a computer terminal who, using a sensing tool, follows a point on the computer screen that tracks and transmits the move- ments and sensations of what the first person is feeling. "When the person receiving the sensation matches the movements of the person feeling the object, he not only understands how the person moved his hand, but at the same time he feels exactly the kind of forces the other person is feeling," explains Kesavadas. Kesavadas notes that the sensation of touch is the brain's most effective learning mechanism-more effective than seeing or hearing-which is why the new technology holds SO much promise as a teaching tool. "You could watch Tiger Woods play golf all day long and not be able to make the kind of shots he makes, but if you were able to feel the exact pressure he puts on the club when he putts, you could learn to be a better putter." Kesavadas and his coresearchers are particularly interested in the technol- ogy's potential for medical applications. They're pursuing ways of communi- cating to medical students the exact pressure employed by an expert surgeon as he or she cuts through tissue with a scalpel. They also believes the tech- nology could one day be used for medical diagnosis-allowing a doctor to feel a human organ and then to check it for injury or disease via the Internet. A key benefit of the technology, according to Kesavadas, is its ability to capture for future replay and continual instruction the sensation of an activ- ity after it's been transmitted. "It almost would be like one-on-one training," he says. "You could replay it over and over again. Hospitals could use it to deliver physical-therapy sessions to patients, for example." THE CRITICAL LAST INCH-INPUT AND OUTPUT TECHNOLOGIES Also researching haptics technology is the Massachusetts Ins