UC Santa Barbara Engineers Unveil Display Tech That Converts Light Directly Into Touch Sensations

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have introduced a groundbreaking display technology that translates projected light into tangible physical sensations. Unveiled in December 2025, this innovation marks a significant departure from conventional methods relying on vibrational feedback. This interdisciplinary breakthrough means users can now not only see dynamic graphics on a screen but also actively feel them.

The genesis of this project dates back to late September 2021, when Professor Yon Visell initiated the challenge: to transform the light forming an image into something perceptible to the touch. After roughly a year of intensive modeling and several unsuccessful attempts, a functional single-pixel prototype was demonstrated by graduate student Max Linnander in December 2022. Remarkably, this initial unit operated solely through flashes from a low-power laser diode, requiring no integrated electronics whatsoever.

Each individual pixel functions as a micro-chamber. These chambers contain a layer of graphite sealed beneath a flexible silicone membrane. When light from a projector strikes the graphite, it absorbs the energy and rapidly heats up. This thermal absorption causes the air trapped inside the chamber to expand, pushing the silicone membrane outward. This outward movement creates a physical bump that the user can physically feel.

The team at the RE Touch Lab, situated within UCSB’s California NanoSystems Institute, emphasizes a key design advantage: the simplicity of the surface itself. By shifting the complexity to an external projector, they have paved the way for creating highly flexible tactile surfaces. This approach sidesteps the need for intricate wiring or motor arrays directly embedded in the display material.

The prototype showcased by the researchers featured an array of 1,511 individually addressable pixels spread across a 15 by 15 centimeter area. System response times were clocked between 2 and 100 milliseconds, fast enough to render tactile effects that convincingly simulate movement. User studies validated the technology’s high fidelity; volunteers achieved over 90 percent accuracy when identifying the direction of moving or rotating objects, and they could successfully distinguish between various spatial and temporal patterns.

This significant development, detailed in the journal Science Robotics, offers a substantial leap forward from traditional haptic interfaces that often demand complex wiring harnesses and dense motor assemblies. The UCSB collective, comprising experts from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Media Arts and Technology Program, managed to render the tactile surface energetically passive. Furthermore, the system is calibrated to prevent any uncomfortable temperature increases on the user’s skin.

The potential applications for this technology are wide-ranging. Imagine automotive touchscreens that mimic the feel of physical knobs and buttons, e-readers that offer tangible illustrations, or smart architectural walls designed for enhanced mixed reality experiences. Because the projected light serves the dual purpose of illumination and energy delivery, the display surfaces themselves remain devoid of internal electronics. This inherent simplicity suggests the technology is highly scalable, potentially allowing for much larger formats utilizing current high-powered laser video projectors.