Feel the future: Exploring immersive haptics in multimedia

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Imagine watching a film where your favorite character is lost deep in a rainforest as dark clouds gather overhead and a storm rolls across the sky. Rain begins to fall, and you can feel the cool raindrops landing across your shoulders and arms as if you were there. As the storm intensifies, you feel the rain growing heavier.

The character eventually takes shelter in a cave behind a waterfall. As they step inside, you feel the environment change. The sensation of rain fades, replaced by cool air and the feeling of mist drifting from the crashing water outside.

These touch sensations bring you closer to the action, immersing you in the experience. They also hint at a broader shift in how multimedia experiences are created and experienced.

At Nokia, we’re bringing a richer sense of presence and realism to immersive experiences through new research into haptics, establishing a future where digital experiences can be seen, heard and felt.

Making touch more meaningful

Touch can make digital experiences feel more realistic. But until now, haptic feedback has often been limited to simple notifications or isolated vibrations. The challenge being, immersive experiences rarely involve just one event at a time.

A notification arrives from one direction. An alert appears from another. A third event occurs behind you. Traditional haptic systems can struggle to communicate multiple events simultaneously in a meaningful way, limiting how effectively touch can be used in immersion.

Our immersive haptics research demonstrates how multiple haptic signals can be rendered across the body to help users understand where events are happening and where to focus their attention. Rather than treating every sensation equally, our approach uses location, context and relative importance to help users distinguish between different haptic events.

By transforming touch into a meaningful multimedia communication channel, immersive haptics helps users identify what matters most – while maintaining awareness of everything happening around them. The result is a richer and more intuitive way of interacting with immersive environments, particularly when multiple events occur at the same time.
 

Beyond entertainment

The potential of immersive haptics extends beyond multimedia.

Imagine stepping out of your hotel in Barcelona. On your way to the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a haptic belt around your waist guides you through the city using subtle vibrations. A gentle pulse on your left signals an upcoming turn. A sensation from your right tells you to continue straight ahead. Instead of checking a map on your phone, you can focus on the city around you. You stop to admire the colorful façade of Casa Batlló, wander through vibrant streets and take in the atmosphere around you – all while the navigation happens quietly in the background.

The same principles can also be applied in life-critical situations where information needs to be communicated quickly and clearly.

For example, a firefighter is moving through a smoke-filled building where visibility is almost zero. Sensors detect a hazard to the left, and the firefighter’s haptic jacket vibrates on the left side of their body. Moments later, there’s another one on their back. Instead of relying solely on visual displays or audio instructions, immersive haptics could help communicate important information through touch, directing attention to what matters most.

Similar capabilities could support workers operating in mines, industrial environments and other challenging conditions where awareness and rapid decision-making are critical.

Experience the innovation: EuroHaptics 2026

To demonstrate these capabilities, Nokia researchers, together with Tampere University, are showcasing immersive haptics at EuroHaptics 2026.

Participants are invited to put on an XR headset and a haptic vest equipped with actuators positioned around the torso. Inside an augmented reality experience, they take on the role of a giant gorilla moving through a city while threats approach from different directions.

As projectiles arrive simultaneously from the front, back and sides, the vest delivers corresponding sensations around the body. Some threats are more important than others, allowing participants to experience how immersive haptics can communicate both direction and priority through touch.

The first-hand experience will showcase how immersive haptics communicates direction and priority through touch, enabling users to distinguish between multiple simultaneous events and identify what matters most.

Adding touch to immersive media

Over the past two to three decades, Nokia has made significant contributions to advancing multimedia technologies. We have created more than 5,000 multimedia inventions, including fundamental H.26x video compression technologies.

Immersive haptics represents the next stage in that journey.

Together, immersive video, immersive audio and immersive haptics have the potential to create experiences that feel more natural, responsive and realistic. 

Standardization will play a vital role in ensuring they work seamlessly across devices and services.

Nokia is helping drive the development of MPEG-I Immersive Haptics. We’re contributing technologies that support how touch experiences can be created, delivered and experienced across future multimedia ecosystems – helping establish the foundations for immersive haptics to operate consistently across devices, services and environments.

As digital experiences become increasingly immersive, touch will become a more important part of how people interact with them. Nokia is helping build a future where multimedia experiences can be seen, heard and felt.