Sparkle: Towards Haptic Hover-Feedback with Electric Arcs

Abstract

We demonstrate a method for stimulating the fingertip with touchable electric arcs above a hover sensing input device. We built a hardware platform using a high-voltage resonant transformer for which we control the electric discharge to create in-air haptic feedback up to 4 mm in height, and combined this technology with infrared proximity sensing. Our method is a first step towards supporting novel in-air haptic experiences for hover input that does not require the user to wear haptic feedback stimulators.