Chicago entrepreneurs reinventing the touchscreen with true haptic interactions
CHICAGO, October 6, 2015–Tanvas, a haptic touchscreen innovator, today announced Co-Founders J. Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin, have been named as 2015 inductees into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
After founding a series of successful companies focused on human-robotic interactions, Colgate and Peshkin launched Tanvas (formerly Tangible Haptics) in 2011 to bring haptic technology—the science of applying touch sensation and control to computer applications to allow images on a touchscreen to have texture—to the commercial marketplace.
Colgate and Peshkin are both tenured professors at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and researchers in its Neuroscience and Robotics Lab. Together and individually, they have made seminal contributions to the field of haptics. They have teamed together to co-found three start-up companies: Cobotics (acquired by The Stanley Works in 2002), Kinea Design (acquired by HDT Robotics in 2001), and Tanvas. Peshkin was also a founder of Mako Surgical which was acquired by Stryker Corp. in 2013. Colgate and Peshkin are prolific inventors with 25 and 29 issued patents, respectively, and several others pending.
Tanvas CEO Greg Topel said, “Ed and Michael’s vision and research into the physical interactions between people and machinesis the foundation of Tanvas. The company has continued to build on their innovations to allow individuals to interact with touchscreens in revolutionary new ways across industries ranging from automotive to education. The application of this technology is just in its infancy, and this recognition is another acknowledgement that these pioneers of touch are changing how we interact with the digital world.”
The Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame,hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies,is the oldest and most prestigious Chicago-area entrepreneurship award. Inductees are recognized for building successful businesses and fostering a thriving economic engine in Chicago. Twenty local business people will be inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame at a gala event October8that the Field Museum in Chicago.