One of the side effects of the pandemic COVID-19 and the quarantine was a green light for exotic projects on modernization of public facilities to make them hygienically safe. For example, a button or surface, which is forced to touch thousands of different people – than to replace them? One such project was the technology HaptiRead that creates the label in Braille in the air.
Based HaptiRead panel of 256 ultrasonic transducers, operating at frequencies up to 200 Hz. They do not just create air pressure, which is felt by human skin, but can project it at a fixed point. The impact area extends over a distance of 70 cm from the panel, the system using Leap Motion technology detects the presence in this zone of human hands and projects a virtual point directly at them.
Permission from HaptiRead low, created at the same time no more than 8 points, but no confusion with their recognition. The main difficulty was the method of displaying information, which was three. In the first method, all points in the cell are traced at once, in the second they are rendered sequentially, and in the third, each point is projected separately. According to the test results on the sighted and the blind people it is the latter method was named the most comfortable – he’s not quick, but informative. The accuracy of detection of the signals was 94% for sighted people and 88% for the blind.
So far, the technology HaptiRead not ready for use, it is in development. But the advantages are obvious – air messages exclude the touch of the hand to the surfaces, the risk of Contracting or simply get a zero. And if you combine ultrasonic emitters with holograms, you can create a new kind of multi-channel interfaces.
Source — ArXiv