Concerns about touching surfaces and objects in public spaces have increased due to the pandemic, and companies are looking for alternative solutions that can support equally effective interactions. Further, as physical and digital worlds merge in new applications such as automotive heads-up displays or untethered augmented reality smart glasses, users are looking for natural and meaningful ways to interact with 3D content.
Ultraleap’s hand tracking and mid-air haptics technologies are at the heart of a new virtual approach. These technologies enable human connection, creativity, and collaboration through touchless interfaces that are safe, clean, and intuitive. This session will focus on the technologies and solutions that companies are using to drive brand awareness, enable safer interactions, create connection for
Alex Driskill-Smith | President, North America, Ultraleap

• Where are we now?
• How did we get here?
• Latest Developments
• Where is the ecosystem going?
• How does it compare to other technologies?

Tim Szeto | CEO and Founder, Nanoport Technology Inc.

With the increased adoption of haptics technology in consumer devices comes market fragmentation. Different proprietary APIs, proprietary coding and file formats, different hardware-to-software interfaces, and different motor characteristics effectively create “walled gardens” that are making it difficult for application developers to incorporate haptics easily into their applications.
This is where standardization could really help. Standardized coding formats and APIs, standardized evaluation criteria for haptics, standardized vibration motor performance ranges, to name a few, can only help harmonize the haptics offerings from different vendors – without compromising vendor differentiation. This, in turn, will incentivize content and application creators to incorporate richer haptics experiences into their offerings, leveraging the standard interfaces throughout the stack. Current walled gardens will give way to a flourishing haptics ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders.
In this talk, I will be describing the progress of haptics standardization activities in international standards development organizations (SDOs) like MPEG, ATSC, and IETF. Highlights include treating haptics as a first-order media type in ISOBMFF files, incorporating haptics into ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, and a recently issued draft Call for Proposals on a standardized haptic coding format by MPEG. I will also look ahead on the other potential areas where standardization could make sense.
 
Yeshwant Muthusamy Ph.D., | Senior Director, Standards, Immersion

Embr Labs is the first thermal wellness technology company, combining thermal haptics, digital experiences, and human psychophysiology to deliver transformative tools for health and wellness. Our first product, Embr Wave, is an intelligent warming and cooling bracelet that integrates with a mobile app to deliver digital + thermal wellness solutions. Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Matthew Smith, will discuss the science behind thermal haptics, the markets driving adoption of their first generation product, and give examples from the lab and the real world to illustrate how thermal haptics can improve the human experience.
 
Matthew J. Smith Ph.D, | Chief Scientific Officer, Embr Labs

Sateco industrializes a silicone stack actuator which moves without noise and produces a significant proportional displacement and mechanical force. This so-called artificial muscle has a wide bandwidth as it can move very slowly (<1 Hz) up to a few 100 Hz. The fast motion can be used to create a tactile stimulus. The slow motion can induce a change in surface texture, providing additional tactile and visual cues to the user for orientation. We show examples of efficient integration of the actuator into hard and soft surfaces. The actuator is compliant to curved surfaces, compensates tolerances, and attenuates vibration. The low weight and compact shape make it suitable for wearable devices.
 
Daniel Haefliger, PhD | CEO, Sateco XT AG