While it is not unusual to see new license agreements announced by Immersion, it is always interesting to see these with companies that may not be an obvious user of haptics. Korean company Duck-il is focused on electronic controls for automotive, such products as seat controller switches, lighting controllers and plastic moldings.
The company highlights that it invests >20% of sales in R&D and is likely looking to move up the value chain. Perhaps moving into head units or similar. Mr. Kim, Lead Development Engineer at Duck-il is quoted as saying “Haptics is becoming pivotal to modern automotive interface designs” and I thoroughly agree with him. SAR expects to see haptics usage accelerate in automotive for a whole range of solutions from lane departure warnings to head unit touch feedback. We will be covering this market in detail later in 2022.
Our latest forecast for haptics hardware in automotive are included here: Haptics Hardware
On a related note this article also points to increased use of haptics in automotive settings Immersion and Nissha Partner on New Automotive Interface Designs – Immersion Corporation.
