'Smart' hands come closer to reality

Soon, you will be able to use your skin as a touchscreen as a team of scientists has successfully created tactile sensations on the palm using ultrasound sent through the hand.

The University of Sussex-led study is the first to find a way for users to feel what they are doing when interacting with displays projected on their hand.

This solves one of the biggest challenges for technology companies, which see the human body, particularly the hand, as the ideal display extension for the next generation of smartwatches and other smart devices.

Current ideas rely on vibrations or pins, which both need contact with the palm to work, interrupting the display. However, this new innovation, called SkinHaptics, sends sensations to the palm from the other side of the hand, leaving the palm free to display the screen.

The device uses 'time-reversal' processing to send ultrasound waves through the hand. This technique is effectively like ripples in water but in reverse, the waves become more targeted as they travel through the hand, ending at a precise point on the palm.

It draws on a rapidly growing field of technology called haptics, which is the science of applying touch sensation and control to interaction with computers and technology.

Professor Sriram Subramanian said that technologies will inevitably need to engage other senses, such as touch, as we enter what designers are calling an 'eye-free' age of technology.

He added, "What we offer people is the ability to feel their actions when they are interacting with the hand."

The study was presented at the IEEE Haptics Symposium 2016 in Philadelphia.