You’ve probably seen ‘Haptics, Haptic Technology, Haptic Feedback, Haptic Wearable’ all over our website. But what does it actually mean?

Haptics uses technology to simulate the experience of touch in digital experiences, making them more immersive and intuitive. At bHaptics, we use various types of vibration motors in all of our products. Coupled with our patented Illusion Algorithm, they create the experiences our customers love.

Even if you do not own any bHaptics products, you have probably already experienced haptics! The vibration feedback you feel when typing on a smartphone keyboard or pressing buttons on a video game controller is haptic feedback!

So what makes haptic technology so special?

Our real life experiences are a combination of different sensations working together to create what we know as, ‘real’. However, in many digital experiences we’re still limited to just audio and visual input.

Haptics + Audio + Visual inputs are a step in making digital interactions feel more real and natural.

When we started creating our first haptic devices, we focused on integrating more motors compared to the conventional haptic devices to create sensations that felt more spatially complete. Our first version of the haptic vest released in 2017, contained 40 motors.

However, as we experimented we realized adding more and more motors was not a long term solution. We realized that our Haptic Illusion Algorithm, as seen above, ‘fills in the gaps’ between each motor, making the haptic feedback feel more natural and realistic to the user. Meaning we can reduce the number of motors in each device, which reduces the weight of each device and ultimately the cost. All without diminishing the original experience. These savings are a step to ensuring wearable haptic technology is accessible to everyone.

Right now, many of our customers use our devices in VR games. In VR, haptics can simulate the feeling of holding an object or the resistance of pressing a button.

For example, directional hits can alert the player to dangers in the game, in tandem with visual and audio cues that the game might originally provide. It can make simulate weather effects, the feeling of walking through mud when it is raining. Casting a spell can have the effect of magic leaving the body, and potions can be felt powering up. Whatever the effect, haptics plays a crucial role in making digital worlds feel more tangible and interactive.

By simulating the feeling of texture, pressure, or resistance, haptics help to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds, making the experience feel a little more realistic.

We currently have six haptic devices.

Learn more about each product in detail here.