How MPEG Haptics, Streaming, and Next-Gen Standards Are Reshaping Content Delivery
By Detjon Brahimaj, WYVRN
Figure 1 — Haptics joins audio and video as a first-class media type in the MPEG-I family of immersive media standards.
| 4.1B Haptic-Enabled Devices | 2025 MPEG-I Standard Released |
|---|---|
The Missing Sense: Why Haptics Matter
For decades, the immersive media landscape has been defined by visual fidelity and audio quality. Yet neuroscience tells us something crucial: touch is fundamental to how humans understand and remember experiences. When learning surgical techniques in virtual reality, feeling the resistance of tissue matters as much as seeing the incision.
The statistics are compelling: over 4.1 billion devices worldwide are equipped with haptic actuators. The hardware foundation exists. The missing piece has been standardization and interoperability.
The MPEG-I Haptics Coding Standard
Published in January 2025, MPEG-I Part 31 (ISO/IEC 23090-31) marked a pivotal shift: the first unified international standard for capturing, encoding, transmitting, and decoding vibrotactile and kinesthetic data across platforms. The standard defines two complementary formats — HJIF (Haptic JSON Interchange Format) for authoring and exchange, and MIHS (MPEG-I Haptic Stream), a packetized binary bitstream stored in HMPG container files for delivery.
What This Standard Enables:
The standard supports both descriptive (parametric JSON) and signal-based (PCM waveform) inputs, with two profiles: Simple Parametric for phones and controllers, and Main Profile with wavelet encoding for advanced simulators and unlimited channels. Crucially, it integrates haptics into existing media delivery ecosystems so haptic-enriched content rides the same pipes as 4K video. Bitrate budgets are modest: 8–16 kbps delivers good quality, with 32 kbps reserved for high-fidelity scenarios.
Why Streaming is the Game-Changer
Streaming resolves fragmentation through standardization. When haptics is treated as a first-class media type in DASH and other protocols, transformative things happen:
Table 1 — Bandwidth Comparison
| Stream type | Typical bitrate | Relative cost |
| 4K HDR video | 15–25 Mbps | Baseline |
| HD stereo audio | 256–320 kbps | ~1.5% of video |
| MPEG-I haptics (good) | 8–16 kbps | <0.1% of video |
| MPEG-I haptics (compact) | 2–4 kbps | <0.02% of video |
Haptic streams add a barely-measurable overhead to existing video pipelines — three orders of magnitude smaller than the video they accompany.
Three Pillars of Standardized Haptic Streaming
| Synchronized | Haptic feedback arrives with low latency |
| Efficient | 8–16 kbps for good quality vs. video’s megabits |
| Compatible | Works on any MPEG-compliant device |
Real-World Applications Today
InterDigital and Razer publicly demonstrated MPEG haptics streaming at MWC, pairing it with Razer Sensa HD Haptics hardware across ten haptic endpoints — including the Razer Freyja, Kraken V4 Pro, and Wolverine V3 Pro. In February 2026, the two companies formalized their collaboration through the Haptic Excellence Center, a joint initiative building production-grade haptic streaming infrastructure alongside academic research.
Beyond entertainment, Presence has adopted the MPEG haptics standard across a range of XR applications: XR-based training for safe operations, pain relief in virtual environments, professional collaboration, and cultural heritage. Each relies on the standard for cross-vendor reliability.
The Broader Ecosystem
MPEG-I Haptics is part of a larger standardization landscape: IETF (RFC 9695), OpenXR 1.1 (Khronos), ATSC 3.0, IEEE standards, and W3C web APIs. Together, they ensure haptics support spans broadcast, web, XR, and wireless networks.
Table 2 — How MPEG-I Haptics Fits the Media Stack
| Layer | Standard | Role for haptics |
| Codec | MPEG-I Part 31 (ISO/IEC 23090-31:2025) | Defines HJIF (.hjif JSON interchange) and MIHS (.hmpg binary stream) — the actual encoding of vibrotactile and kinesthetic signals. |
| Container | ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 14496-12, 7th Ed.) and CMAF (ISO/IEC 23000-19) | Carry .hmpg as a first-order media track alongside audio and video in MP4 / CMAF segments. |
| Streaming manifest | MPEG-DASH (ISO/IEC 23009-1) | Signals the presence of haptic tracks in MP4 segments so DASH clients know to fetch and route them. |
| Internet media type | RFC 9695 (IETF, March 2025) | Registers ‘haptics’ as a top-level media type with ‘hmpg’ and ‘hjif’ subtypes — what browsers, servers, and OSs negotiate over. |
MPEG-I Part 31 rides the rails already built for audio and video — no new infrastructure required.
Conclusion: Touch is the Next Frontier
The journey from proprietary formats to global standards to mainstream streaming delivery represents a maturation of XR. In five years, experiencing immersive content without haptic feedback may feel as incomplete as watching a modern film without surround sound.
The sense of touch—long the forgotten dimension of digital experiences—is finally coming home.
Key Takeaways
| MPEG-I Haptics Coding StandardUnifies haptic encoding, compression, and delivery for interoperable experiences |
| Streaming IntegrationSynchronized with audio/video using existing infrastructures |
| Industry AlignmentIETF, OpenXR, ATSC, IEEE, W3C ensure haptics spans all platforms |
| Future Phase 2Spatial and interactive haptics for object-anchored tactile feedback |
