A volumetric display for visual, tactile and audio presentation using acoustic trapping

Authors: Ryuji Hirayama, Diego Martinez Plasencia, Nobuyuki Masuda & Sriram Subramanian Science-fiction movies such as Star Wars portray volumetric systems that not only provide visual but also tactile and audible 3D content. Here, we present a Multimodal Acoustic Trap Display (MATD): a mid-air volumetric display that can simultaneously deliver visual, auditory, and tactile content, using acoustophoresis as the single operating principle. Our system acoustically traps a particle and illuminates it with red, green, and blue light to control its colour as it quickly scans through our display volume. Using time multiplexing with a secondary trap, amplitude modulation and phase minimization, the MATD delivers simultaneous auditive and tactile content.