Cross-Field Aerial Haptics: Rendering Haptic Feedback in Air with Light and Acoustic Fields

We present a new method of rendering aerial haptic images that uses femtosecond-laser light fields and ultrasonic acoustic fields. In conventional research, a single physical quantity has been used to render aerial haptic images. In contrast, our method combines multiple fields (light and acoustic fields) at the same time. While these fields have no direct interference, combining them provides benefits such as multi-resolution haptic images and a synergistic effect on haptic perception. We conducted user studies with laser haptics and ultrasonic haptics separately and tested their superposition. The results showed that the acoustic field affects the tactile perception of the laser haptics. We explored augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) applications such as providing haptic feedback of the combination of these two methods. We believe that the results of this study contribute to the exploration of laser haptic displays and expand the expression of aerial haptic displays based on other principles.