Simulating Airborne Ultrasound Vibrations in Human Skin for Haptic Applications

Abstract

The ability to focus high amplitude ultrasound onto human skin and elicit a tactile sensation in mid-air poses a number of scientific opportunities and challenges. For example, a common issue with mid-air haptics is the relatively low forces generated on the user’s skin, thus limiting the dynamic range of vibrotactile sensations that can be induced. To that end, we develop a viscoelastic rheological finite element model and apply it to show that different acoustic radiation patterns can generate varying forces, displacements, and oscillatory patterns on the targeted skin and its nearby vicinity. Our framework allows for the high resolution computational exploration of a wide range of mid-air stimulus sensations saving time and resources spent on running expensive experiments while.

Keywords

• Mid-air haptics
• skin modeling
• wave propagation
• high intensity ultrasound
• viscoelasticity
• multiphysics