Sony's Spatial Reality Display renders lifelike 3D that appears to float in mid-air, viewable with the naked eye — no headset, no glasses. It's a striking window into spatial computing, but it's one you can only look through. You can see the depth; you can't reach in and touch it.
We set out to close that gap. Working on a Spatial Reality Display unit kindly loaned to us by Sony's team, we paired the HEXR haptic glove with Leap Motion optical hand-tracking — letting users reach straight into the display's 3D scene, grabbing, pushing and holding virtual objects with their bare hand while HEXR delivers the sensation of touch at the moment of contact.
The result turns a display you watch into a space you can interact with. Seeing an object float in front of you is convincing; feeling it push back as you take hold of it is what makes it believable — the same principle behind everything we build with HEXR.
We showcased the integration through a mini-game demo, where players reach into the floating 3D scene to interact with objects and feel each contact as they play.
The same approach opens compelling possibilities for museums, galleries and exhibitions. Imagine a priceless artifact, a piece of fine jewellery or a fragile historical object presented floating in glasses-free 3D — and visitors reaching in to turn it, examine it up close and feel its form, weight and surface detail in their own hand, all without a headset and without ever touching the real piece. It transforms a display case from something you look at into something you can hold.
For institutions, that means engaging, accessible encounters with objects that are too rare, too delicate or too valuable to handle — and for brands and retailers, a way to let people pick up and feel a product that isn't in the room. It's a compact look at where spatial computing is heading: displays you don't just see into, but reach into — and touch.