How haptic technology is going beyond sight and sound to get us hands-on with the virtual world.

What if you could explore far-flung countries and reach out to touch the animals and plants all around you with your fingertips? Or feel the rumbles of being aboard a spaceship as you pilot it through an asteroid belt? How would it feel to kick the ball into the net in the biggest football game of the century? Welcome to the world of haptic technology.

Haptic comes from the Greek word haptikos, which means ‘able to touch’, and describes anything relating to our sense of touch, just like the word optic is linked to our sense of sight. So, as you’d expect, haptic technology is all about creating experiences and interfaces that you can interact with using touch.

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