This idea is for tiny electronic actuators inserted into your inner ear to gently nudge individual hairs and thus fool your brain as to the current balance or orientation of your body - designed to add a lifelike sense of movement and acceleration to flight virtual reality systems.

Also, remotely activating this device for a prank will make someone fall over.
-- hippo, Jul 02 2015

Endolymph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endolymph
fluid in the semicircular canals [csea, Jul 04 2015]

oh, not bank balance!
-- po, Jul 02 2015


Magnetic ferrorfluid seems perfect for this. Any volunteers? (I don't know that I want anything foreign injected into my ears).
-- RayfordSteele, Jul 02 2015


// Any volunteers?//

<hand shoots up; leaps out of chair> YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! I volunteer [8th]!!!!!!

But seriously (relatively). This is an awesome idea. Balance is about the only sense not already catered to by VR, but is arguably one of the most important.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 02 2015


We already have this, and it's awesome ....

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Jul 02 2015


OK, but can we inject things into [8th]'s ears anyway?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 02 2015


Couldn't we go "down-stream" a little, and do it electrically in the balance->brain nerves?
<Aside>
I get motion sickness, and I always wondered if I could install an "off" switch in said nerve, to stop me feeling ill. </a>
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 02 2015


[Max] Another useful sense to simulate to improve VR would be proprioception, but getting that right may be harder
-- hippo, Jul 03 2015


// can we inject things into [8th]'s ears anyway? //

Certainly not. Besides, that triggers unpleasant recollections of Sturton's perverted "hide and seek" game at last year's Walpurgisnacht celebration.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2015


//unpleasant recollections of Sturton's perverted "hide and seek" game at last year's Walpurgisnacht celebration.// Yes, but you never did find that dormouse, did you?

//Another useful sense to simulate to improve VR would be proprioception// But VR is supposed to allow you to move/walk physically, shirley? If you had synthetic proprioception, you would not be interacting voluntarily with the VR.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2015


You're meant to be on the inside.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2015


You're twice as supposed to be twice as much inside if it's a Klein bottle.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2015


Look at you! I made you break your clavicle! PRANKED!
-- Voice, Jul 03 2015


I wonder if, in the history of the world, anyone has ever broken their clavicle with a clavichord?
-- hippo, Jul 04 2015


A we getting meaner as we get older?
-- pashute, Jul 04 2015


No, just less inhibited about expressing it.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 04 2015


//oh, not bank balance!// Good one, [po]!
-- csea, Jul 04 2015


Endolymph [link], the fluid in the semicircular canals is ionic, hence should be susceptible to influence by electromagnetic fields.

There is therefore a plausible basis for implementation of the idea without resorting to //tiny electronic actuators// and/or invasive replacement of the fluid. [+]
-- csea, Jul 04 2015


//Endolymph [link], the fluid in the semicircular canals is ionic, hence should be susceptible to influence by electromagnetic fields. // This probably explains why people fall over after being electrocuted.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 04 2015


And also why they don't respond when you call their name.
-- pocmloc, Jul 05 2015



random, halfbakery