Netflix Hack Day project brings phone vibrations to action sequences

One of the newest projects that came out of Netflix’s recent Hack Day event lets you feel the action right in the palm of your hands. If you watch shows with a smartphone, that is. Hans van de Bruggen and Ed Barker created Project Rumble Pak, which explores how haptics can be used to enhance the Netflix viewing experience on smartphones. It reminds us a bit of what Sony did with a setting on its phone that caused the device to vibrate while playing games or watching videos. The creators made use of Voltron: Legendary Defender to demonstrate how this feature can work. Using technology from Immersion Corporation, they synchronized the content with haptic effects so that “every explosion, sword clank, and laser blast, you get force feedback to amp up the excitement.”

Hack Days at Netflix are a big thing at the company because it helps bring together employees from its different departments to “explore new ideas and experiment with emerging technologies.”