Spotlight On
A spotlight on Ultrahaptics
This month, CIE shines the spotlight on Ultrahaptics as we chat to its CEO Steve Cliffe. CIE finds out what makes him tick and where he sees the future of haptic feedback in everyday life
manipulated in mid-air. The team at Ultrahaptics has identified markets that, with the application of their mid-air touchless haptic technology, will become viable for the first time. The founders of the company developed a truly innovative solution to the problem of missing haptic feedback from gesture recognition interfaces. These are interfaces in which a response is initiated by users moving their hands, and has applications automotive, white goods and industrial markets amongst others and Ultrahaptics are already engaging with tier one customers in these markets.
Steve Cliffe S
teve Cliffe has more than 25 years’ experience in the electronics industry with significant exposure to global markets. He joined Ultrahaptics from Plessey Semiconductors where he was the business development director. Prior to this, Steve was CEO of Provision Communications, CEO of Xintronix, vice president of sales and marketing at eoSemi and sales director at Dialog Semiconductor. He joined Ultrahaptics at the end of 2014, and now heads a team that is expanding to fit the rapidly growing market for mid- air touch technology. In the last 12 months, Ultrahaptics has raised one of the largest A-rounds of funding for a private tech company of over £10m. The company has also secured a European Commission Grant of €1.49m. This financial backing is testament to its success in showing the potential of the technology. Tom Carter, now CTO, and Sriram Subramanian, now CSO, founded Ultrahaptics, in 2013. It is based on technology originally developed at the University of Bristol. The company has created a way to feel virtual objects in mid- air, without the need to wear any special equipment. Using ultrasound, the technology enables virtual buttons, shapes, switches and dials to be felt and
42 June 2016 Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
Ultrahaptics is a software licensing company. By working closely with its customers, who manufacture electronic devices and systems, Ultrahaptics enable them to create custom buttons, switches, dials and sensations in mid-air. Customers can explore the technology by purchasing an evaluation kit that has everything they
need to get started, including engineering support.
By hiring an experienced CEO, quickly building an engineering team, hiring a vice president of engineering in early 2016, and most recently a director of sales for the EMEA region, then carefully managing customer demands with research and development, the company has been able to develop a technology exploration lab, to concentrate on seeing what’s next. Demand is high for a technology that will make gesture recognition systems responsive and more intuitive to use. Consumers can reap the benefits of being freed from having to physically engage with technology without impacting our ability to control devices and the potential is limitless for what other markets could be addressed by the use of modulated ultrasound.
Where do you see the future of haptic technology and why?
Humans aren’t meant to use keyboards and mice, they’re quite an unnatural tool for us to work with and have evolved through a perceived necessity rather than an actual need. Using the QWERTY keyboard might be considered as natural now, but when it was first developed in the 1870s, I’m
sure it took people a while to get used to. Gesture control is a different matter. It is designed to be intuitive so that without being told, you just know what to do and how to control a device. It is also universal regardless of language - a pinch means zoom in, a swipe will move you to the next track, or screen, and so on. In conjunction with this, it has been proven that when we perform an action, our brains recognise it as having been successful when we feel a response; this is where haptic technology comes in. Haptic technology can be employed everywhere where control is needed - every switch, button or toggle can be replaced with a gesture-controlled device. With this, however, comes the human desire to receive feedback that the gesture has been ‘seen’, recognised, and will be put into action. There are potential applications everywhere: from the buttons on an ATM to car dashboards; from elevators to kitchen hobs. There are particularly interesting applications in places where touch can actually be detrimental, for example in hospitals, where the introduction of gesture control and haptic response could help limit the spread of infection. In short, in the
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