A Touch of the Future: The TOUCHLESS Hackathon 2022

Ultrasound haptics allows us to experience the sense of touch without contact with any physical surface. This novel "touchless" feedback can be used for various use cases but is not widely adopted nor incorporated in everyday products. The 2022 TOUCHLESS Hackathon aimed to enable novel practitioners to learn about touchless technology, generate new ideas, and implement prototypes. We invited participants to a 3-day hackathon in Copenhagen, Denmark, where we introduced touchless technology and provided novel touchless devices for prototyping use cases. Participants were joined by experts on ultrasound haptics, who helped them achieve their prototyping goals. Coming from various educational and national backgrounds, the participants approached the task in different ways and created four unique interactive prototypes. This event report introduces the TOUCHLESS Hackathon and reflects on the lessons learned.