Dustin Tyler (left) and Jacob Segil are the founders of haptics firm Afference.
Dustin Tyler (left) and Jacob Segil are the founders of haptics firm Afference.
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Afference creates artificial touch sensations with rings on your fingers

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 7 min

I got up early in Las Vegas to check out Afference, and I’m glad I did. In a suite at the Venetian during the CES 2024 tech trade show, founders Jacob Segil and Dustin Tyler showed me how they create artificial touch sensations by putting some wired rings on my fingers.

They stimulated the rings with wires, and I felt a haptic sensation in my fingers. The founders of Afference — — call it the Phantom. It can relay tactile information to the brain so that you feel things that aren’t there. It’s a new step in developing a neural interface for the brain and digital electronics.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.