About - Tanvas

Create a Tactile Experience with Multi-Touch + Haptics

Our mission is to connect people to the digital world through rich touch interactions.

Despite advances in graphics and sound, today’s touchscreen is still just a lifeless window into the digital world. TanvasTouch surface haptics add a new dimension – the realistic sense of touch – so you can create dynamic textures that can be felt with the swipe of a finger.

We use electrostatics to control friction and create virtual touch. The applications for this technology are endless – feel the edges of keys, the snap of a toggle switch, the swipe of a turned page, the direction and magnitude of impacts in a game.

For anyone who wants to elevate, deliver or participate in a more engaging and complete touchscreen experience, Tanvas provides a touchable canvas on which to create. TanvasTouch is programmable software that adds textures and feelings to smooth, physical surfaces. Imagine and create an infinite number of holistic and integrated experiences on any touch surface.

Read more about surface haptics and how this technology can be implemented.

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Leadership Team

Phill LoPresti

CEO

“Surface haptic technology is so versatile, it can be difficult to imagine all of the ways in which this new level of rich touch feedback can enrich our touch-enabled devices. But much like other technology advancements that become part of our everyday lives, there will come a time when we cannot imagine touchscreen interactions without the magic of TanvasTouch.”

Ed Colgate

Co-Founder

“Imagine how stark life would be if everything we touched felt exactly the same: smooth, hard and featureless. Yet that is precisely the experience that we’ve been forced to accept in the digital world. No more! Our mission is to bring “touch” fully into the touchscreen experience. We create the technology and tools that support rich, versatile and satisfying tactile experiences.”

Michael Peshkin

Co-founder

“Everyone expects their touchscreen to feel flat. It’s possible that we have lost our sense of touch or at least our expectation of being able to feel something on a touchscreen. I look forward to people becoming connoisseurs of touch, and I think they will.”

Mondher Cherif

Chief Scientist

“Early in my career, I was developing touchscreens that had no physical interaction and this always seemed like a missed opportunity. At Tanvas, we created an innovative technology to bring the sensation of touch back where it belongs – to the touchscreen.”

What a Long, Multisensory Trip It's Been

Mar 2006

Surface haptics research begins in the Neuroscience and Robotics Lab (NxR) at Northwestern University and the first of 50+ patents filed.

May 2011

Tanvas is spun out and officially becomes a company.

July 2012

Tanvas received an NSF SBIR Phase I grant.

March 2013

Secured seed round of investment from a major OEM.

June 2015

Closed a $4.6M Series A investment from R7 Partners, Peak6, Northwestern University, and Silicon Valley venture investors.

July 2016

Hired our 10th employee (and still hiring).

January 2017

Publicly debuted TanvasTouch technology at CES 2017. The technology was listed on WIRED’s Top 10 Sharpest Designs and received The Verge’s Best of CES “Most Touching” Award. Tanvas also received an IHS Markit Innovation award for the Automotive category as well as the prestigious Tibbetts Award from the SBA.

June 2018

In collaboration with MediaCom, TanvasTouch® powers the “Gillette Babyface” campaign which received Gold and Silver at the 2018 Festival of Media Global Awards, as well as a Silver Lion at the 2018 Cannes Lion International Festival for Creativity.

June 2019

Launched the Mimo Vue with TanvasTouch for digital signage and conference rooms. This collaboration with Mimo Monitors is the first commercial touchscreen with TanvasTouch surface haptics.

August 2019

Appointed Phillip LoPresti as CEO.

September 2019

Named a Cool Vendor in Display and Vision, 2019 by Gartner

January 2020

Tanvas receives IHS Innovation award at CES 2020 for its advancements in automotive; TanvasTouch Desktop Development Kit available for purchase.

June 2020

TanvasTouch awarded 2020 Display Component of the Year by the Society for Information Display.