Aireal: Interactive Tactile Experiences in Free Air

Yeah, I was wondering why they kept repeating that.

From the linked paper [0], from the description of figure 2 on page 2, it appears as if the "enclosure, flexible nozzle and gimbal structures" are all 3D printed.

The description of how they empirically found a good nozzle shape also implies that they 3D printed the various designs before settling on the final version.

[0] http://www.disneyresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/Aireal_FNL.... (22 MB)

I would like to disagree that there aren't any moving parts used whilst generating ultrasonic waves. After all, something needs to vibrate.

Ultrasonic levitation is pretty cool, and the tacile interface isn't bad either. I just somewhat pity that they've looked at the technology and told themselves "Ohh, that'd be great for musicians", which I think isn't the right assumption to make in this case. I mean HD-MIDI still hasn't been adapted widely after being discussed in 2005 (that's 8 years now), so I wonder if musicians are a fertile breeding ground for "paradigm changing tacile interfaces".

For certain types of games latency shouldn't be a problem since you can map the future interaction point between hand and target. If you miss then, well you missed. Boxing games would work well, FPS not so much. In a POV game you can't predict the view angle so also not the interaction point.

I am a student from the Startup Institute in Cambridge MA...definitely not a Disney employee. My contact details establishing my ID are in my profile.

As long that the links are interesting and provide something as relevant as this one I see no problem.

Care to explain? Haptic = tactile feedback, regardless of the medium used to achieve the effect. Even rumbling gamepads qualify as such.