Urbana Campus Research Calendar (OVCRI)

Building Spatial Haptic Interfaces

Talk Abstract:

Our hands are powerful tools in the physical world, but they often feel clumsy and disconnected in XR. Why is that? I believe it's because most haptic systems fail to engage our hands in a natural way: through their relationship to space. In this talk, I’ll introduce Spatial Haptics, an approach that treats touch as a spatial interaction rather than just a local sensation. I’ll highlight two key ideas that make haptic systems more expressive, engaging, and ultimately more useful. I’ll share how I helped bring variable-friction surface haptics from the lab to a commercial automotive product, then dive into my current work at Fluid Reality, where we're developing distributed haptic pixels using embedded electrohydraulics. Finally, I’ll outline a vision for the next generation of haptic wearables that feel native to spatial computing and unlock new ways to interact in XR.

Speaker Bio:

Craig is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois and co-founder of Fluid Reality. He earned his PhD at Northwestern University, where he developed novel surface haptic technologies, and went on to serve as VP of Research and Development at Tanvas, leading efforts to commercialize electroadhesive touchscreens. He later completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute with the Future Interfaces Group. His research in interactive embedded systems and haptic actuation has received six best paper awards and nominations at leading ACM and IEEE venues, and has been featured by NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TechCrunch, and Engadget.

This talk will be in-person at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, or remote via:https://go.illinois.edu/immerseseminar021326

Coffee and snacks will be provided.