It’s been no average month for Bristol-based leading mid-air haptic tech company Ultrahaptics who produce almost magic invisible controls you can touch in mid-air. Now it’s secured a new partnership with haptic and optic researchers Shinoda & Makino Lab, at the University of Tokyo, to extend its innovation in mid-air haptics.

The Shinoda & Makino Lab at the University of Tokyo has been busy prototyping a revolutionary new technology called Haptoclone. Haptoclone is an interactive system producing haptic and optical clone images in mid-air so that two users, apart from each other, can ‘touch’ and interact with each other with unaided eyes and bare hands.

“Bringing together haptics and optics is incredibly exciting for us”

 

You can see Haptoclone in action in the video below:

 

It’s hoped that, in partnership, Ultrahaptics and the university lab will be able to collaborate, as well as easily exchange information – which could spell for some exciting developments on both sides.

Speaking of the partnership, Ultrahaptics CEO, Steve Cliffe tells us: “We’re in the perfect position to bring this technology to a market that’s hungry to produce a better, more intuitive, interaction with technology.”

“We’re engaged with key global players in a variety of traditional and novel technology industries. The horizons have just been expanded, bringing together haptics and optics is incredibly exciting for us and this partnership will help us develop a host of new implementations quicker. It brings a wealth of expertise to the possibilities.”

Ultrahaptics and the Shinoda & Makino Lab will have its first public collaboration at the world’s biggest Computer Human Interaction conference, CHI2016, in San Jose in May 2016 where the teams will host a workshop on ‘Mid-Air Haptics and Displays: Systems for Un-Instrumented Mid-Air Interactions’.

Partnering with the University of Tokyo then, should only expand both horizons even further whilst showcasing the talents of some of Bristol’s best innovators on a global scale.

New beginnings

Not only has Ultrahaptics secured a great base for collaborative innovation, in the same month, the team moved out of business incubator the Engine Shed into a much larger office at Glass Wharf to accommodate the company’s impressive growth.

ultahaptics-office-launch

The grand reveal – Engine Shed Director, Nick Sturge and Ultrahaptics CEO, Steve Cliffe,
cut the ribbon at the office launch-party

Steve tells us more about the company’s move, explaining: “Having grown from 4 to 28 employees in little over a year, and expecting to be 40 by the end of the summer, we were keen to find somewhere we could continue to grow, whilst staying within reach of the train station and vibrant surrounding area. It’s a great place to work and attract new recruits.”

“We’re in the perfect position to bring this technology to a market that’s hungry to produce a better, more intuitive, interaction with technology”

 

Plenty of Ultrahaptics’ fans agree – including TechSPARK’s Managing Director, Ben Shorrock who shared one of Ultrahaptics exciting demos at the office launch on Twitter.

 

 

Stay tuned to Ultrahaptics’ journey by following them on Twitter: @Ultrahaptics. You can also see what the team at the University of Tokyo are up to by checking out the Shinoda & Makino Lab website.

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