Adding Touch to Immersive Media: An Overview of the MPEG Haptics Coding Standard

In May 2021, MPEG issued a call for proposals
for the specification of a new coding format for haptic data.
Following this call, a baseline reference design and associated
software implementation were defined for the representation
and coding of haptic data. It resulted in a complete generic
framework, allowing the development of current and future
haptic applications in the mobile, gaming, and virtual reality
domains. This paper introduces the results of the first phase
targeting mainly temporal haptic effects, either in a parametric
or signal-based representation form. It includes the description
of the codec architecture, the current performance, and the
future plans for the coding representation and distribution of
haptics. The publication of the final ISO international standard
is expected at the end of 2024.