AIREAL is a novel haptic technology that delivers effective and
expressive tactile sensations in free air, without requiring the user
to wear a physical device. Combined with interactive computers
graphics, AIREAL enables users to feel virtual 3D objects, experience
free air textures and receive haptic feedback on gestures
performed in free space. AIREAL relies on air vortex generation
directed by an actuated flexible nozzle to provide effective tactile
feedback with a 75 degrees field of view, and within an 8.5cm
resolution at 1 meter. AIREAL is a scalable, inexpensive and
practical free air haptic technology that can be used in a broad
range of applications, including gaming, mobile applications, and
gesture interaction among many others. This paper reports the
details of the AIREAL design and control, experimental evaluations
of the device’s performance, as well as an exploration of the
application space of free air haptic displays. Although we used
vortices, we believe that the results reported are generalizable and
will inform the design of haptic displays based on alternative
principles of free air tactile actuation.