Yes. Probably. Most of the time, but not always.

We’ve done the math, and there are better options out there.

Keep reading

In our recent paper published by the Royal Society called “Modelling disease transmission from touchscreen user interfaces“ (see link to paper) we have built a simulation environment of a network of touchscreens and modeled how people interact with them. This is schematically shown in the figure below. A queue of people start to use touchscreens at different locations. Sometimes, someone will use 2 or 3 touchscreens in sequence. Sometimes, someone will come and clean the screen with soap. Meanwhile, sometimes, someone may have dirty fingers thereby infecting the touchscreen with pathogens (bacteria or viruses) which someone else may pick up, infect themselves, or carry forward to the next touchscreen they use. It’s quite an interesting dynamical system with simple feedback loops and interactions.

This is just a model, what about a real example?

We applied our model to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) Terminal 5 involving two touchscreens (check-in and bag-drop) and found that in order to reduce the “infection rate“, we would need to clean those screens 100s of times per day. That’s a lot!

Our paper attracted quite some attention from the public mass media since it came out right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, July 2021.

This included media from the UK, Australian, and Cyprus news articles and magazines: The courier, Worldakkam, SigmaLive, Paideia-News, CyBC news (TV), PhileNews, Cosmos, YgeiaWatch, EuropeanOfficeCyprus, PreLights, Scimex, StockWatch, In-Cyprus, Politis, CyprusMail, and CNA.

A follow-up scientific paper was produced (see link to paper) with further modeling complexity and accuracy validating and expanding on the results of the first paper.

Touchfree Alternatives

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There are many important topics that have a direct impact on our lives and are therefore often at the forefront of public debate on TV, Radio, and Social Media. Examples include the potential health risks of 5G, Climate Change, Autism and Vaccines, the safety of GM foods, the Economic risks of Brexit, and of course how to react to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scientists like myself have voiced our views, concerns, and insights about issues like the ones above and many others. Despite this, research in 2017 has found that scientists, academics, and researchers are underrepresented in giving written and oral evidence to decision making committees. Not only that, but scientific opinions and advice have often been downplayed as unpopular or unrealistic and have thus been ignored. The risk of prioritizing misinformation or populism over scientific advice is highly dangerous.

It's only a model

Some complain that "models are just models". Well, there is this model that predicts that if you jump through the window you will be attracted by the ground with a force inversely proportional to the height of your floor. Would you ignore Gravity and jump? It's just a model. Hopefully not.

You have to be knocking on an open door if they are to listen

COVID-19 may open this door. More scientific advisors will sit on management boards, be invited on public talk shows, and be consulted by governments. This is all good news! It's good for scientists whose research and inquisitive brains will be put to good use. It's good for businesses who are now scrambling to deal with the new post-COVID norm. It's good for the economy as governments will take a science-backed approach when introducing new measures in mitigating the imminent COVID-19 recession. It's good for the consumer who in the past few weeks has been panic-buying toilet rolls and pasta. And it's good for society as we recover from social distancing and the loss of loved ones.

The rise of the Scientific Advisor

Science communication has never been as important and as popular. So here are a few fundamental and simple tips:

1. Don't dumb it down

2. Don't generalize

3. Don't use aggressive language

All the above decrease trustworthiness and credibility

1. Establish yourself as an expert

2. Start with Why? Why should we care / Why act now / Why not that other thing?

3. Give solid but simple examples

4. Provide a realistic and logical action plan

5. Be open to suggestions and discussions

All the above increases trustworthiness and credibility and are more likely to be followed.

For additional resources about science communication, please see Reading Materials section at the end.

There is no room for facts when our minds are filled with fear

It is therefore important to debunk myths and not to be ignorant about the world.

While there is much to be fearful of and much to be optimistic about, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be one of the defining moments of our generation. No one will ever forget it and its effects will be felt by people and economies for years to come.

Sadly, these after-effects will disproportionately hit low-income and minority workers in poor and rich countries alike. This means that policymakers will need to make sure that, as countries open up, the recovery doesn’t make inequality even worse than it already is. Scientists can help with that. Not only in designing new policies and more robust and autonomous systems and smarter cities but also in healing and upskilling societies as a whole.

Read the LinkedIn article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rise-scientist-orestis-georgiou/

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Reading Materials:

On science communication

Brown University Science Center’s Quick Guide to Science Communication pdf

Recommended practices for science communication with policymakers pdf

Van, Dam Frans, Bakker Liesbeth De, and Jensen Eric Allen, eds. Science Communication: An Introduction. Vol. 1. World Scientific, 2020.

Fischhoff, Baruch. Communicating risks and benefits: An evidence-based user's guide. Government Printing Office, 2012.

Farrell, Justin, Kathryn McConnell, and Robert Brulle. "Evidence-based strategies to combat scientific misinformation." Nature Climate Change 9.3 (2019): 191-195.

On COVID-19

Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team Report pdf

Open Covid19 Initiative link

The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead link

How the Pandemic Will End link

31 questions and answers by Bill Gates about COVID-19 link

Here are some of my current thoughts and suggestions.  

“If one had told me that in two weeks, we would have created 500 new ICU beds or completely reorganized our hospital system, I would have said, okay, you are crazy, and it's happening now” is what Dr Giacomo Grasselli said a few days ago (see video) about the Italian’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Lombardy.

One can only but imagine Giacomo’s unfortunate realization that a wealthy region like Lombardy would be struck by this virus so hard and that drastic measures and actions were needed.

Are we prepared?

Public health policy decisions during a potential crisis are difficult as they must balance a zoo of scientific, budgetary, social, and political considerations. In an ideal world, each of these elements should have been considered well in advance and in a transparent fashion before reaching a decision or implementing a specific policy. In practice however, the reaction to the Covid-19 outbreak has to date been one of cautionary prevention. Almost all affected countries have announced measures that restrict travel and impose social distancing; a strategy that will almost surely have a strong social and economic impact as they disrupt people’s lives and business, but that will also minimise the number of fatalities and flatten the curve thus not overwhelming their already stretched healthcare resources while slowly but steadily building up herd immunity.

What's our strategy?

Already, officials all over the world like Dr Grasselli are faced with evermore difficult situations and questions. For example, can contact tracing and testing translate into population-level virus containment effects, and if so, would its scale-up have sufficient impact to justify the added cost? Is screening individuals at airports an effective method of infection control? (btw it wasn’t for the H1N1 pandemic). Can we evaluate the expected epidemiological and economic impact of different strategies for scaling up Covid-19 screening and testing (e.g., centralized, at airports, or at individual clinics), and can we estimate the required ICU bed capacity in each country/region given the observed reproduction number (R0), incubation and recovery time of the virus?

Such questions can be, and have been, addressed effectively using mathematical modeling methods that connect dynamic SEIR (susceptible - exposed - infected - recovered) models to specific intervention strategies and their socio-economic costs and benefits. See for example some early results by Hellewell, Kucharski and Cowling et al (2020).

A case for mathematical models.

Unfortunately, such mathematical modelling methods are rarely constructed in some parts of the world because they are perceived to be “too complex”, “too dependent on assumptions”, and “not accurate enough”. These misconceptions stem mostly from a tradition of insufficient communication between public health officials and expert scientists in academic environments.

It’s a trust and science communication problem.

As a scientist myself, I am personally compelled to passionately promote quantitative, data-driven and systematic methods that can help us take the right sequence of public health policy decisions. How else can one evaluate a priori the comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of possible interventions at a population level? How else will we make the right choices and avoid taking unnecessary and ineffective actions?

Through my experience in modelling complex systems (see my publications page), there rarely exists a one-size-fits-all solution. Each country should thus develop or adapt mathematical models to fit their own requirements, circumstances, and peculiarities. Understanding the effectiveness of control measures in different settings is paramount for understanding the dynamics of the outbreak, and the likelihood that transmission can eventually be contained or effectively mitigated. Moreover, once a model is constructed, it can iteratively incorporate updated data, leading to better estimates and highlighting existing weaknesses in the model assumptions and in the available data so that it may also be used during the next epidemic/pandemic outbreak.

OK, but how?

For mathematical models to be useful for decision makers, they must be both relevant and methodologically sound. According to Knight et al. (2016) developing a useful model requires one to identify:

1. a set of useful questions and their epidemiological contexts,

2. a framework through which these questions can be addressed,

3. the parameters required to address the specified questions,

4. the empirical evidence available to inform those parameters.

Each of these 4 steps necessitates early engagement and transparent communication from local, national, and/or international policymakers themselves. They are the ones who should inform scientists and academics of the key public health questions to be considered. They are also the ones who can provide access to accurate data and lay out all possible public instruments, measures, and resources available as ingredients to the intervention.

Similarly, the modelers should guide those with less methodological expertise and explain their results and mathematical insights in a transparent and accessible manner so not to be perceived as a ‘black box’ that is susceptible to manipulation and is too difficult to understand but as a useful and meaningful tool for making informative decisions for the benefit of society.

Let’s be smart about Covid-19

The last pandemic (H1N1 in 2009) lasted about 20 months and killed about 0.5M people. The current pandemic (Covid-19 in 2019) will last X months and kill Y people.

There are several non-biological factors that make the Covid-19 pandemic different from all previous ones and we should think carefully what role these can play in its effectiveness and how they should be integrated into mathematical models and utilized in our interventions to tackle the virus.

-      Mobile telephony global positioning system (GPS) data and location services data from social media could be used to monitor and inform outbreak control in real-time.

-      Remote work, telemedicine, e-learning, online (food) shopping and social media can facilitate for social distancing while not drastically impacting work, schools, hospitals, food, and friendships.

-      Our arsenal of Artificial Intelligence models will now be challenged to predict further outbreaks, identify best practices and potential weaknesses in our critical infrastructure, and even accelerate our search for a vaccine.

In summary

While governments have ramped up efforts to improve readiness and invested heavily in R&D, Covid-19 has taken us by surprise and demonstrated that we can never be too prepared. In addition to cautionary prevention measures, quantitative scientific methods do exist and should be engaged by policymakers to create tailored responses that can contain and mitigate the outbreak. Each country/region has its own characteristics and should not blindly copy/paste generic blanket solutions.

References and useful articles

Kucharski, Adam J., et al. "Early dynamics of transmission and control of COVID-19: a mathematical modelling study." medRxiv (2020).

Cowling, Benjamin J., and Gabriel M. Leung. "Epidemiological research priorities for public health control of the ongoing global novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak." Eurosurveillance 25.6 (2020).

Knight, Gwenan M., et al. "Bridging the gap between evidence and policy for infectious diseases: How models can aid public health decision-making." International journal of infectious diseases 42: 17-23, (2016).

Hellewell, Joel, et al. "Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts." The Lancet Global Health, (2020).

Bill Gates "The next outbreak? We’re not ready" – TED talk 2015 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI

Microsoft Interactive map of confirmed cases: www.bing.com/covid

Read the blog in LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-mathematical-models-can-predict-covids-next-step-orestis-georgiou/

This rapid paradigm shift has sent shock waves to both the job market, employees and employers, politicians and educators around the world and calls for an action plan to train ourselves, our employees, and our children to adapt to unpredictable situations and to be more creative. Instead of focusing on careers, our life-long education strategy will thus need to focus on projects that train us on how to use and interact with available resources and in particular robots and AI. This will aid us to achieve our own individual, professional goals while also adding value to businesses ranging from lean start-ups to technology giants who seek to innovate.

As a team leader at Ultrahaptics, and as an active researcher at the University of Cyprus and mentor to several students, I'm often asked what advice I'd give to recent graduates and PhD students in light of the current technological, climatic, and political uncertainties.

What should a recent graduate or young research professional facing all these do in order to ensure she survives and sees a good return in her educational and professional development investments?

The above question is nothing new. It has been addressed many times over the years and advice often comes from our educators, our peers, or our parents. While all of us mean good, the truth is that nobody really knows and we can only make educated guesses based on personal experience. 

Can we do better than that?

According to the World-economic forum, for students to thrive in the emerging Industry 4.0 marketplace, they must learn to combine traditional skills (taught in classrooms) with skills in critical thinking (or problem solving), creativity (or design thinking), collaboration, emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility (the ability to innovate). This has led to the recently embraced educational competencies also known as the “Four C's” (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration) that have long been hailed as the core skills to equip oneself when facing 21st-century challenges. 

Creativity and Critical Thinking represent the fundamental ingredients for innovation. Similarly, Communication and Collaboration are critical life skills that underpin our ability to live, connect and work with one other. The “Four C's” strengthen our ability to find our place – professionally, personally, and socially – while fostering other life-enhancing C's: curiosity, confidence, caring and cooperation.

My advice is this, cultivate a good balance of C’s in your own life and in your organisation, and with a bit of motivation and strategic planning, you will find yourself heralding a breeding ground for inspirational ideas and innovation.

Innovations do not start from a desire to try something for the sake of being innovative. It is my thesis that innovations arise from the moment one realises that there is a problem and suspects that a new technology, method or system may provide an opportunity to do something better, or differently, and then trying it out. It’s a trial and error (“prototyping”) process, during which mistakes occur and students, professionals, and executives sometimes get confused and upset - you cannot expect them to get it from the word go. But with refinement and perseverance, and often some luck, some of these ideas work out well, gain support and momentum, and a useful new technique, system, or idea emerges. These ideas, which for the sake of this article I’m calling innovations, are what future employers will most likely be looking for from their workforce. 

After identifying something that has potential originality and meaningfulness, I usually first must go and talk to people. I talk to people in my team, or people who I trust, and try to question my hypothesis over a cup of coffee or tea. I listen and entertain related ideas and alternatives and try to identify bigger problems or see the bigger picture. The first step is therefore quite distributed. A collaborative process of communal sense making and thought stirring. The next step in my creative process usually involves scribbling down some notes, thoughts and sketches on the back of the many unused printouts that tend to pile-up at the side of my desk. These are notes and papers that I will later recycle. At this stage in the process, I like the fact that I’m working on scrap paper as it gives me that extra freedom for unstructured, unbounded and unregretful exploration – I hate wasting paper. I then sleep on it in order to facilitate insightful reasoning or boost creative functions through dreams.

The final step in my creative process is the write-up, usually in LaTex format, a high-quality typesetting system that includes features that are designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. Here, I chose my words judiciously such that they are both accurate in describing the purpose, function, and reasoning of my invention, but also, I chose my words such that they instil an expansive character to my text, thus encouraging the reader to pause and think of the implications and potential impact of what is being proposed.

I guess this blog is also quite timely since there are currently a few openings if you or someone you know is looking to join our exciting journey.

And it truly feels like an epic journey. Five months after I first joined UH in 2017, a group of us were out in one of Bristol's many local pubs showing our American colleagues (Ultrahaptics has an office in Bristol and in Palo Alto) a good time and trying some of the local beers. The night was full of work related discussions about what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it. We'd collaborate with X and develop with Y and demo at Z. It was going to be great! Never had I felt such team motivation and passion before. At some point, one of them raised his glass and said to me "let's change the world" (he probably doesn't remember saying this, but I do). Note that there was no senior management present and we had had a couple of pints already. Nevertheless, coming from an academic background where research publications on average receive 10-50 reads/citations, I found his words extremely impactful and refreshing. A year later and the journey continues and is as exciting as ever.

Ultrahaptics has developed a technology that enables you to feel virtual objects without touching them - no wearables or hand-held controllers needed. Sounds like magic doesn't it? Here's a simplified explanation of how this magic works: we write code that is interpreted by our patented algorithms that instruct a set of complex electronic components to drive 100s of ultrasonic speakers at particular amplitudes and phases. The ultrasonic waves interfere constructively such that several high pressure points are created in the air above. When touched by a human these pressure points cause small vibrations onto the skin that can be sensed by a collection of tiny sensors embedded under our skin called mechanoreceptors. These mechanoreceptors are connected with nerves that transport the received vibration signals through our somatosensory system to the brain where they are decoded and translated into a tactile perception or haptic feedback. Depending on the initial code input, we can therefore create different tactile perceptions, e.g., the perception of fingertip grasping of a virtual object, or a button click, or a rotating dial, or a lightning spark or fire bolt... the list of tactile perceptions extends from physical to metaphysical and goes on and on since it's virtually fully software programmable.

My point is that magic is not easy. Everyday at the office, we have electronics engineers, mechanical engineers, acoustic engineers, software developers, haptics engineers, computer scientists, UX/UI designers, graphic designers, and even physicists and neuroscientists working together to improve and refine this magical experience of contactless haptic feedback. Never before have I been surrounded by such a talented, diverse, multi-skilled and multi-disciplinary group of individuals. We work in teams and sub teams and have frequent cross-team coordination meetings to ensure coherence, knowledge transfer, and that we're progressing according to our roadmaps. We also have internal seminars and collaborate with over 50 universities worldwide. 

And then there's Management, who I probably shouldn't be commenting about in a public post. Bottom line is that they have a clear plan that is well communicated to the rest of us in Engineering and Biz Dev and also ensure that we have all the tools and resources needed to execute that plan (and give us lot's of coffee and cake). They're also open and approachable: they have an "ask us anything" and "no blame" kind of attitude.

To summarise and to conclude: great culture, lots of talent, and a clear plan. These are in my view the three main ingredients for Ultrahaptics success and why I love my job.

Are you looking to join a workforce that challenges you? Are you looking to change the world? Are you a multi-talented individual who can work with multi-disciplinary teams? Check out our openings!

Ultrahaptics? Check out our Development kits and our Academic, Agency and Acceleration programs here:

Otherwise, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook or simply drop us a line at hello@ultrahaptics.com

Implicit in the above text is that these are my own personal thoughts and do not represent those of the company. 

Related blogs

In 2014, Long et. al. published a seminal paper on how to create three-dimensional haptic shapes in mid-air using focused ultrasound [2]. A lot of progress has been made since then at Ultrahaptics, both on the hardware and software fronts, the majority of which forms the company’s core technology and IP. The 2014 paper entitled “Rendering Volumetric Haptic Shapes in Mid-Air using Ultrasound” however captures the essence of much of our continued R&D efforts and therefore is something I’ve been wanting to write about for some time now.

Let’s start with the journal of choice. The paper was published in the ACM Transactions on Graphics which to me initially came as a surprise but later accepted based on the following argument: We usually think of graphics as computer-generated 2D/3D still or animated images and therefore is quite disconnected from the field of haptics and the sense of touch. For a blind person however, graphics are haptics. The connection therefore does exist and so one simply needs to think of ultrasonic haptics as computer generated 2D/3D still or animated images that are sensed by the skin rather than the eyes.

In visual graphics, the blending of RGB colours, the contrast and dynamic range, the method for rendering of polygonal meshes, the resolution and the animation frame rate are some of the fundamentals related to the image quality. Similar fundamentals exist in analogy to Ultrahaptics graphics, most of which were first studied in this seminal 2014 paper:

• Novel algorithms were introduced that animate 2D geometrical shapes such that as a result 3D objects are felt.

• Efficient algorithms were discussed that unlocked the possibility of rendering multiple focus points in real time and at predictable frame-rates.

• Optimisation algorithms were introduced that can boost hardware performance as to achieve increased strength of the mid-air tactile sensations.

• Simulation software was used to visualise the results, and user studies were conducted to verify them.

• New hardware architectures were designed and built to implement the above algorithms.

All these investigations and many more continue to occur at Ultrahaptics today, where we try to uncover and exploit the various trade-offs between quality, performance, and costs whilst remaining within the realms of physics and perception. Moreover, we strongly subscribe to the open innovation model and collaborate with multiple Universities and Research Labs in order to facilitate knowledge transfer and accelerate innovation in haptics, HCI, and focused ultrasound.

text

If you are interested in ultrasonic mid-air haptics, I would strongly encourage you to read Long’s paper and to join our Academic Program. Moreover, I’m always happy to discuss new research directions and the use of Ultrahaptics development kits so please get in touch or book a Skype call with me here.

[1] Culbertson, Heather, Samuel B. Schorr, and Allison M. Okamura. "Haptics: The Present and Future of Artificial Touch Sensation." Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems 1 (2018): 385-409.

[2] Long, Benjamin, Sue Ann Seah, Tom Carter, and Sriram Subramanian. "Rendering volumetric haptic shapes in mid-air using ultrasound." ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 33.6 (2014): 181.

Related blogs

“2017 can only be summarized based on you, because everybody’s journey is different.”

Maybe it’s my own wishful thinking, but I have the strong impression that this year we’ve seen a number of technologies demonstrate what MIT calls "staying power". Reinforcement learning in AI, Quantum Computing, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, and Virtual Reality are some of my favourites. These will undoubtedly affect our economy, our politics, improve our lives, and influence our cultures. Some are already unfolding before us whilst others will take longer to develop and proliferate.

Virtual Reality (VR), for instance, is well established in the gaming industry and has already made several inroads into many other sectors. Importantly however, with recent backing from several of the current tech giants, VR has finally gone mainstream and is now reaching more people than ever before.

One of the many reasons for this extraordinary growth is the recent advancements in Haptic technologies. To date, VR has been predominantly audio-visual through a head-mounted-display and a pair of headphones. That’s only two out of our five senses.

That’s just 40%

Yes, this is a very crude estimate, and yes, the tantalizing potential in systems that leverage tactile cues in VR has been the subject of research since the mid-80s. However, only recently have we seen commercially available haptic apparatus that supports advanced interactions in VR and enables for easy software development of quality content that can actually deliver.

I’m happy that Ultrahaptics is a leader in the haptic VR space but I’m even more proud of the underlying reasons for this. Our mid-air haptic technology is revolutionizing the way we interact with technology, both in VR and in many other settings. A key ingredient on our “road to impact” has been investing in cutting-edge innovation and facilitating for ambitious academic research projects.

2018 is going to be very exciting!

Our research teams are working hard to explore and expand these possibilities, both internally and externally. Namely, our advanced research team is growing faster than ever, our academic collaboration network is now 40 Universities strong, we are running international workshops and hosting innovation challenges at the most impactful of scientific events, and we are manipulating levitated small particles with the aid of focused ultrasound and EU funding.

Related blogs

“Ideas are very needy if they are ever to grow into something tangible, and research and development form a very big part of this growth process.”

Haptics is the science of applying touch sensations to control and interact with computer applications. Haptic technologies is a market currently estimated at $16 billion and expected to reach $ 44.5 billion by 2022. Indeed, the potential for using haptics in interfaces for virtual-environment and tele-operator applications is enormous, and appears to be growing exponentially. To be highly effective however, haptic researchers need to consider not only the hardware and software, but also the human user. This is why there are continuing challenges related to making the technology more seamless, reliable, and natural.

Biblical Haptics

Unsurprisingly, one of the oldest published uses of the word “haptics” (from the Greek ἅπτω) comes from the Bible. Note that there is no religious connection intended here, but rather an interesting appearance of metaphysical haptics in an ancient scholarly published text. In John 20:17 (what a coincidence!), the verse containing Jesus' response to Mary Magdalene right after his resurrection says: “μή μου ἅπτου, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα” (Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father). Many years later, and the word “haptics” is back on our publication radar. In fact, Google’s Ngram Viewer (an online search engine that charts word frequencies in printed sources) shows how “haptics” has closely followed “touch screen” until 2008. 

The Experience Age

Whilst Ngram doesn’t report on what has happened over the last 9 years, it’s not difficult to imagine the steep upward trends, and extrapolate them even higher as we depart from the Information Age and enter the so-called Experience Age - an age defined by Snapchat videos and VR digital content, rather than Facebook status updates. In this exciting new Age, digital content exists not only in image, audio and video formats, but also in haptic formats. This is a result of many years of research and development by the ever-growing haptics community, supported of course by market forces, public funding, and our own career opportunities and aspirations.

Priority Research Areas

We see nowadays an increasing number of conferences and journals where haptic researchers can publish their findings. According to the IEEE Technical Committee on Haptics, the successful deployment of haptic interfaces requires continuing advancements in hardware and software algorithms, as well as our understanding of the human somatosensory system. Furthermore, current priority areas include, but are not limited to: devices and technology, tactile display and tactile sensing, haptic rendering, perception and psychophysics, neuroscience, haptic cognition, multi-modal perception, sensory guided motor control, and haptic communication. See also the haptic taxonomy.

Applying and Developing Ideas

The above research areas find a plethora of applications in, for example, Robotics, Medicine, Entertainment, Transport, Education, and the Arts, making the research field of haptics truly transdisciplinary. Moreover, many underlying market opportunities have been seized by entrepreneurs to form start-ups, many of which are now multi-million dollar companies who are shaping the future. But, as we all know, it all starts with an idea, and ideas have needs.

The Haptics Research Group was formed to provide a space which facilitates conversations on haptics, where researchers can connect, share and shape ideas, funding and market opportunities.

The haptics technology market is said to be growing at 22%. Be a part of it!

I’d therefore invite you to join this group if you are interested to learn more about haptics, and post relevant discussion topics, question the status quo, post links to reports, articles, and presentation slides, and of course advertise job and funding opportunities. Feel free to sell your vision and brag about your new results. Please though engage with these posts both from an R and a D perspective and give ideas the attention that they deserve.  

Related blogs

Already, the Ultrahaptics Academic Program has attended its first hackathon in March 2017. I’m very excited to say that we got to mentor four outstanding teams, two of which were awarded winning prizes out of the 400 participants in total. A-MAZE-BALL got the overall “best-hack” award, and Bongo Hero got the “best VR hack” award. In fact, we were so impressed by Bongo Hero, that we will be inviting the winning team to intern at Ultrahaptics this summer where they will perfect their prototype and get to experience first-hand what it’s like to work at Ultrahaptics and therefore positively influence their future career paths.

If a group of undergraduate students are able to realise such cool prototypes in 36 hours, can you imagine what a team of experienced engineers can put together? To that end, I’m super excited about the diversity in applications that Ultrahaptics finds use in and keen to see how far and wide the academic community can take our platform. Hackathons are great opportunities to kickstart such use cases and so I’d welcome any future invitations to participate and support.

Related blogs

Already, the Academic Program has been met with great interest from the scientific community with enquiries coming in from as far as New Zealand and Peru! Our goal is to enable researchers to explore new application areas and uses of Ultrahaptics technology. I therefore aim to work closely with universities to understand their research ideas and identify the right HW platform for their needs. All our kit ships with a library of pre-built haptic sensations, example code, a fully documented SDK and an API. This means that Academic Program members can kick-start research projects, develop new prototypes, evaluate, publish and demo their work.

The feedback I get from our academic partners also provides us with insights into the demand and technical challenges that our Engineering team needs to tackle in future product iterations. Hence, the Academic Program is a bi-directional innovation link connecting Ultrahaptics with universities, and universities with Ultrahaptics. I’m really excited to be at this “playmaker” position and keen to help launch all sorts of interesting research projects.

Visit the Ultrahaptics website to check out our existing academic portfolio.

Related blogs