Ultrasonic Haptic Display Lets You Feel Without Touching Screen
Posted by: J. McMahon on 10/25/2013 08:50 AM
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Yeah, you read that title correctly. A new project by Bristol Interaction and Graphics in the UK, this "touch sensitive" display can be controlled by simply pointing your finger (power by a Leap Motion Controller), and can also let you physically feel where you are on the screen.
This is a tough concept to explain on paper, but what you need to know is that this is seriously world changing and revolutionary. Using frequencies that only your dog can hear (you know, like those dog-repellent things you probably have in your drawer?), the system can create pinpoint invisible waveforms in the air, that are actually tactile.
"We modulate the ultrasound so that it is perceived as a vibration on the skin. Changing the modulation frequency or pulsing the feedback gives different textures. By giving each feedback point a different modulation frequency, we can have different feedback, with different textures applied to the user at the same time."
With Ultrasonic Haptic technology like this, combined with the already amazing motion tracking abilities of hardware like Leap and Xbox Kinect, even the coolest video screens in your favorite sci-fi movie seem like they are behind the times.
But, we are still quite a few years away from having this in your iPhone. You need a special "ultrasonic translucent" display that the ultrasonic sound can pass though, yet still display high quality video, as well as the complex ultrasonic sound emitters underneath it. So yeah… a couple years at least.
Watch this video to learn all about it, then go visit Bristol Interaction and Graphics to learn more.
This is a tough concept to explain on paper, but what you need to know is that this is seriously world changing and revolutionary. Using frequencies that only your dog can hear (you know, like those dog-repellent things you probably have in your drawer?), the system can create pinpoint invisible waveforms in the air, that are actually tactile.
"We modulate the ultrasound so that it is perceived as a vibration on the skin. Changing the modulation frequency or pulsing the feedback gives different textures. By giving each feedback point a different modulation frequency, we can have different feedback, with different textures applied to the user at the same time."
With Ultrasonic Haptic technology like this, combined with the already amazing motion tracking abilities of hardware like Leap and Xbox Kinect, even the coolest video screens in your favorite sci-fi movie seem like they are behind the times.
But, we are still quite a few years away from having this in your iPhone. You need a special "ultrasonic translucent" display that the ultrasonic sound can pass though, yet still display high quality video, as well as the complex ultrasonic sound emitters underneath it. So yeah… a couple years at least.
Watch this video to learn all about it, then go visit Bristol Interaction and Graphics to learn more.
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