Ultrahaptics gets €1.49m grant from EU

Ultrahaptics, the Bristol-based developer of ultrasonic free-space haptics technology, has announced that it is to receive a grant of €1.49m in the latest round of Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2.

The company applied for the grant under the commission’s Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme which aims to foster the development of fast-growing, innovative SMEs with promising, close-to market ideas bearing high disruptive potential in terms of products, services, models, and markets.

Ultrahaptics has developed a technology that uses ultrasound to create feeling in mid-air. By holding their hand over ultrasound speakers the user can feel virtual objects, control switches and buttons.

According to Ultrahaptics CEO Steve Cliffe:

“We are enormously proud to have been selected as one of only four companies in the UK to receive this funding. Our innovation will be truly disruptive in the way we interface with technology, and this funding will help us develop the breadth of applications.”

“We are already engaged with key partners in multiple markets but the applications really are limitless. Everything you touch physically today, every light switch, dashboard control, keyboard, you could feel yourself touching virtually, in mid-air, in the future.”