The University of Tokyo

Haptomime: Midair Touch Panel

Midair Touch Panel

The system enables interaction with a floating image with touching sensation, i.e. tactile feedback. The tactile feedback is presented onto a fingertip by transmitting focused ultrasound superposed on the floating image. This scheme allows for touch interaction as if pantomiming on the floating image. The liberation from a physical panel extends the use of touch interface to such situations as cooking or medical operation, where otherwise hands get smeared by a panel or the panel gets smeared by the hands.

  1. Yasuaki Monnai, Keisuke Hasegawa, Masahiro Fujiwara, Kazuma Yoshino, Seki Inoue and Hiroyuki Shinoda,"HaptoMime: Mid-Air Haptic Interaction with a Floating Virtual Screen," in Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 2014, pp. 663–667, Oct. 5-8, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (doi: 10.1145/2642918.2647407)