Antonia Forster - Touchless Technology
Channel: TechExeter
Date: 22/12/2020

COVID-19 has transformed our lives, and we are now more aware than ever of hygiene in public spaces. Recent Ultraleap research showed that just 12% of consumers believed that touchscreens in public spaces are hygienic and 50% said they are unlikely to use touchscreens again. But touch screens are still a ubiquitous part of the digital-out-of-home experience: from hospital kiosks and airports, to supermarkets and ATMs. Could there be a better solution? Using hand tracking and mid-air haptics, Ultraleap is creating completely touchless interfaces that allow users to interact, feel and press buttons in mid-air without touching a screen or holding a controller. Antonia Forster, Unity Game Developer at Ultraleap, will be speaking about her work on touchless technology, the challenges of designing a completely new kind of interface, and her hopes for its future application - including bringing the sense of touch into VR/AR experiences.

Session takeaways

* An insight into "post-pandemic tech", specifically hand tracking & ultrasonic, mid-air haptics
* a (pre-recorded) demo of touchless interfaces in action
* knowledge of other potential applications, including AR/VR

Bio

Antonia is a self-taught programmer working in the field of VR, AR, hand-tracking and haptics, on the cutting edge of technology. She is an accomplished public speaker and passionate advocate for women and LGBTQ+ people in STEM, travelling the world to help businesses diversify their workforce. In 2017, Antonia delivered a TEDx talk that has reached over 100,000 views online. She has been shortlisted for Nature’s prestigious John Maddox Prize – an award for those who stand up for science in the face of adversity.

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Archived session from the TechExeter & Digital Exeter Conference 2020

https://conference.techexeter.uk