Advanced haptic technology, which enables users to touch virtual objects in mid-air, could change the way we interact with everything from kitchen appliances to cars its UK inventors have claimed.
Developed by Bristol start-up Ultrahaptics – which was spun out of work at Bristol University’s Bristol Interaction and Graphics (BIG) Laboratory – the technology uses a complex suite of algorithms and an array of ultrasound emitters to produce the sensation of touch.
Critically, unlike other haptic control systems, the technology enables users to receive tactile feedback without needing to wear or touch anything physical, and has recently been awarded a patent for the innovation.
The team – which has won the 2016 Royal Academy of Engineering Colin Campbell Mitchell Award for its work – claims that is particularly well suited to the automotive industry, where intuitive gesture control systems could help improve road-safety.
The Ultrahaptic team is already working with engineers at Jaguar Land Rover on a mid-air touch system for its Predictive Infotainment Screen. The technology is also thought to have huge potential in the consumer appliance and gaming industries.
Commenting on the opportunity Mike Tobin OBE, Ultrahaptic’s Chairman said: “From home audio to kitchen appliances and from cars to laptops, this team of engineers’ achievement is changing the way we interact with technology in our day-to-day lives.”
I remember reading about this system a while back.
While I think it will be useful for applications which don’t require great precision in the gestures (and by all reports the Leap Motion system is pretty accurate), I have reservations concerning its possible application – as the next “best thing since sliced bread” – for purposes which really require precise control (I particularly resent the tendency of technical websites to replace hierarchical information systems with “search”). For example, making the right grade of “undo” response to remedy the consequence of an incorrect control action is likely to be problematic.
the lawyers say (to keep themselves in work!) ‘one can convey a libel with a frown and wink a reputation down!’ For heavens sake don’t let any of them get near this outstanding thinking and effort. I cannot add to the dabate on difficulties in the technology like TM: but the idea of third-parties whose livelihoods depend upon the conflict (disagreement) not its outcome getting into any ‘act’ is, as always frightening. Until Whitworth et al gave us proper measurement, standards, accuracy we had to rely on ‘a full 1/16th…a bare 1/32nd’ to define such. Did my gesture (taken-up by a virtual screen) actually mean what I intended.