To ‘feel’ the virtual world, try this Band Aid-like device

circuit: A network that transmits electrical signals. In the body, nerve cells create circuits that relay electrical signals to the brain. In electronics, wires typically route those signals to activate some mechanical, computational or other function.

conductive: Able to carry an electric current.

current: (in electricity) The flow of electricity or the amount of charge moving through some material over a particular period of time.

density: The measure of how condensed some object is, found by dividing its mass by its volume.

develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing.

electricity: A flow of charge, usually from the movement of negatively charged particles, called electrons.

engineer: A person who uses science and math to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.

fabric: Any flexible material that is woven, knitted or can be fused into a sheet by heat or compression and drying.

friction: The resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over or through another material (such as a fluid or a gas). Friction generally causes a heating, which can damage a surface of some material as it rubs against another.

function: The specific role some structure or device plays.

fundamental: Something that is basic or serves as the foundation for another thing or idea.

glass: A hard, brittle substance made from silica, a mineral found in sand. Glass usually is transparent and fairly inert (chemically nonreactive). Aquatic organisms called diatoms build their shells of it.

graduate student: Someone working toward an advanced degree by taking classes and performing research. This work is done after the student has already graduated from college (usually with a four-year degree).

haptics: A field of research that involves the sense of touch. The term also can refer to building in the ability to convey or receive touch sensations through machines or other devices. Adding a tactile component to virtual reality, for instance, could make the environments they simulate seem more natural or realistic.

materials scientist: A researcher who studies how the atomic and molecular structure of a material is related to its overall properties. Materials scientists can design new materials or analyze existing ones. Their analyses of a material’s overall properties (such as density, strength and melting point) can help engineers and other researchers select materials that are best suited to a new application.

morph: (in non-living systems) It refers to a thing, policy or activity that has undergone change, becoming something that looks or seems new and different.

motor: A device that converts electricity into mechanical motion. (in biology) A term referring to movement.

New South Wales: One of the Eastern states that make up Australia. Home to some 8 million people, it’s the oldest, largest and most urban of those states. Located in the east-central and southeastern part of the nation, most of its residents live in or near the state capital of Sydney.

node: A person or thing in a network.

pixel: Short for picture element. A tiny area of illumination on a computer screen, or a dot on a printed page, usually placed in an array to form a digital image. Photographs are made of thousands of pixels, each of different brightness and color, and each too small to be seen unless the image is magnified.

prototype: A first or early model of some device, system or product that still needs to be perfected.

tablets: (in computing) A type of small, hand-held computer that can connect to the internet and that users can control using a touch screen.

tactile: An adjective that describes something that is or can be sensed by touching.

technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.

virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real — but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled by (or accomplished by) a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts. So a virtual motor would be one that could be seen on a computer screen and tested by computer programming (but it wouldn’t be a three-dimensional device made from metal). (in computing) Things that are performed in or through digital processing and/or the internet. For instance, a virtual conference may be where people attended by watching it over the internet.

voltage: A force associated with an electric current that is measured in units known as volts. Power companies use high-voltage to move electric power over long distances.