A team of researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, has created a device that enables its users to touch and feel three-dimensional holograms in thin air.

“Touchable holograms, immersive virtual reality that you can feel and complex touchable controls in free space, are all possible ways of using this system,” said Dr Ben Long, the first author of the paper published in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics.

The method developed by Dr Long and his colleagues uses ultrasound, which is focused onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focusing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating three-dimensional shapes.

Visually, the team has demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.

“The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt,” Dr Long and his colleagues said.

According to the scientists, the new method could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease.

“In the future, people could feel holograms of objects that would not otherwise be touchable, such as feeling the differences between materials in a CT scan or understanding the shapes of artifacts in a museum,” Dr Long said.

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Benjamin Long et al. 2014. Rendering volumetric haptic shapes in mid-air using ultrasound. ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 33, no. 6, article: 181; doi: 10.1145/2661229.2661257