Glenn Watts

I work inside the messy, exhilarating space where spatial computing meets human sensation. With a background spanning product design, haptics research, and user-centred making, I’m driven by one question: how can digital spaces feel as natural as the physical ones they reference?

My process is material and conversational. I sketch with foam-core and firmware, tossing early prototypes onto colleagues’ desks the moment they’re functional enough to “say” something. Rapid iteration tightens the distance between speculation and proof: a fingertip shell 3D-printed at breakfast becomes a user-test by dinner, its shortcomings fuelling the next version before the filament cools.

Developing the XR Mouse—a fingertip-scale input device blending precise gesture tracking with expressive haptics—revealed a critical gap in current spatial-computing systems: vision-based hand tracking captures intent, but the user rarely feels the outcome. The XR Mouse closes that feedback loop, delivering tactile cues at the point of action.

Collaboration fuels everything. Engineers, physiotherapists, indie game devs, even a music-technology researcher contribute insights that reshape the device. I open-source failed prints and firmware hacks so others can start where I stumbled.

Early testers—an animator sculpting a 3D character, a stroke-rehab patient practising pinch exercises—report moments of genuine presence. My next step is scaling intimacy: preparing pilot manufacturing and SDKs so creators can script haptic stories freely.

Glenn Watts, a Technical Demonstrator in the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford, supports students in realising ambitious Creative Technology projects. His personal R&D explores intuitive, human-centric design that bridges the physical and digital. From the XR Mouse to ShadowOS, Glenn’s innovations aim to redefine how people engage with immersive environments. He’s currently prototyping these ideas for simulation use.

Sam Ingleson

University of Salford

 

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