UNCOMMON MARKET HAPTICS
French startup promises meaningful haptics
FBy Julien Happich ounded in 2015 and backed by
automotive OEM Daimler AG, French
startup Hap2U wants to add reconfigurable
textures to any touch interface,
through haptics.
In a demonstrator haptic smartphone display
dubbed the Hap2Phone, the company
uses a series of thin-film piezoelectric actuators
lined up along two parallel edges of the
display to modulate the friction coefficient
of the glass’ surface by activating precise
vibrational modes in the material, creating
distinct variations in touch sensations.
“The friction of flat screens can be globally
modulated by the application of ultrasonic
vibration with varying amplitude to create
the illusion of a texture” reads an academic
paper co-authored by the company’s CEO
Cédrick Chappaz.
“We can describe this as ultrasonic
lubrication, the discontinued
contact due to the vibrational
modes leads to a friction reduction”
Chappaz explained eeNews
Europe when interviewed about
the technology.
According to the company’s
CEO, by modulating the friction
coefficient at various touchpoints,
these haptics can deliver
Hap2U piezoelectric actuators are
integrated on the back of the surface to
touch. Driving them with an AC signal
creates an ultrasonic standing wave in
the material.
touch sensations ranging from
intense to soft clicks, springs,
buttons or gliders, even giving
a feel for elasticity and all kinds
of high-to-low elevation points and textures. It is the changes
in friction detected by the nerve endings in the
user’s fingertips that are interpreted by the brain
as different textures.
Of course, different materials behave differently
Illustrations of the technology stack for the integration of
Hap2U’s piezoelectric actuators.
when excited by the piezo actuators at
tens of kilohertz, and Hap2U has developed the
hardware and software know-how to be able
to simulate and anticipate both the vibrational
and acoustical behaviours of a full mechanical
stack. The company’s engineers can then design
the optimum piezoelectric layout to get the best
mechanical coupling for a given geometry.
“We license all the hardware design knowhow,
BOM and design as well as the software IP
with libraries that enable OEMs to tune the haptic
effects for a specific user experience”, said
Chappaz. “It wouldn’t make sense to pretend to
be a display manufacturer which is very capital
intensive” the startup CEO added.
The company has developed a Software Development Kit
and some OEMs will build their own touch effects, but some
others may ask Hap2U to develop more complex applications
for which they may need extra technical support.
Although low cost haptics have been around for years with
cheap vibration motors built-in smartphones
to silently notify their users of new
messages, they only deliver a low user
experience.
“If you build something that is really
useful, then you bring additional value to
OEMs. We could bring additional features
and remove some of the costs associated
with no longer needed hardware”, hinted
the CEO when asked if this technology
would come at a premium. The impact on
display power consumption is minimal,
at roughly one per cent. As well as push
button feedback, Hap2U supports force
feedback on display keyboards, it allows
users to feel an object’s contour and texture.
The company is confident that what
made OEMs so hesitant to implement more
complex haptics was the lack of meaningful
use cases.
The haptics can be controlled
over the full screen, and Hap2U
uses the existing capacitive sensors
to track finger position and
deliver the most realistic haptic
feedback. The piezoelectric actuators
on the edges can be driven
in clusters to independently activate
multiple areas of the screen,
Chappaz explained.
Again, the effects can be
designed to take place across
various materials, so the haptic
feedback could be implemented
on both sides of a smartphone, or on the plastic or metal casing
of a white good where the capacitive interface is
designed.
In 2018, Daimler AG invested €4M in Hap2U
in a A round of funding, looking for new haptic
interfaces in future car models and the startup
is aiming to raise €50M in B funding in 2020 to
focus on the industrialization of its technology
for the mass market. The company is recruiting
fast, aiming to double its 30 staff to 60 by the
end of 2020.
It could take another two to three years to
break even, according to the CEO, the time
it may require to go to mass production. The
Hap2Phone was designed to demonstrate the
haptic smartphone display at CES 2020, but
the company wants to reach the smart home
and smart buildings markets as well as the
healthcare and manufacturing industries. With a
research partner, Hap2U is currently developing
thin film piezoelectric actuators, only 2μm-thick, that could be
deposited as a continuous ribbon on glass instead of today’s
discrete actuators. The startup already has laboratory samples
and is looking for an industrial manufacturing partner to go to
mass production.
4 News January 2020 @eeNewsEurope www.eenewseurope.com
/eenewseurope
/www.eenewseurope.com
