Steve Cliffe (left), CEO of Ultrahaptics, and Tom Carter, CTO.
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Ultrahaptics uses ultrasound so you can feel things in VR

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

The problem with virtual reality is that it’s never quite immersive enough. While the visuals and sound make you feel like you’re wandering in a 3D space, that feeling of immersion disappears when you try to touch something. That’s why Ultrahaptics is developing ultrasound “haptics” technology so you can feel things in VR using “mid-air touch.”

The goal of VR is to make you feel like you’re someplace else. The closer you get to that sense of immersion, the more likely the industry will grow as predicted to $30 billion a year by 2020 (as forecasted by tech advisor Digi-Capital).

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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.