Mid-Air Haptics: Future Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Ultrasound mid-air haptic technology has advanced in many ways over the past decade and has found meaningful application in a plethora of use cases. As the technology matures further and progresses from lab to market, in this chapter, we take a step back and discuss three specific directions that we think could result in the greatest impact. Namely, we highlight challenges and opportunities in improving (1) the hardware platforms used, (2) the rendering algorithms employed to create rich haptic sensations, and (3) the resulting user experience and added value the technology can instill to different end-user applications. We hope that this "wishlist" inspires the mid-air haptics and human computer interaction (HCI) community and others to join our efforts toward a deeper technology understanding, integration, and readiness.