Haptic Feedback Asks Can You Feel Me Now?

Every touchscreen smartphone user has experienced it by now: the sudden realization that it’s impossible to manually dial a number without looking at the display.  Until now, the only sensory feedback we’ve been able to get from touchscreen-enabled devices (besides audio-visual) has been crude vibrations generated by small motors inside the units.  Several companies are racing to enhance that sensory feedback experience with technology called “haptics”.

One of the better-known companies in this market is Immersion.  Initially, they developed software for smartphones that gave as much tactile feedback as possible using the existing vibrating motors in them, but Immersion believes the secret to doing more lies in the use of piezoelectric actuators.  Traditional motors oscillate at  approximately once every 50 milliseconds, but a piezoelectric actuator is capable of moving the screen back and forth at 100 micrometers every millisecond.  Vincent Hayward, co-founder of Haptec (eventually acquired by Immersion), says what’s most interesting about their approach is the lateral movement of the screen.

Hayward says, “Because it’s difficult for nerves to distinguish the direction of such movement, it’s possible to trick the senses into feeling upward pressure where there is none.”

A prototype smartphone using this technology was  demoed last year in Spain, at the Mobile World Congress.  It employed a piezoelectric strip that ran down the length of one edge of the touchscreen, causing the screen to move side-to-side.  A suspension system held the screen in place to ensure the case itself didn’t move.  The resulting vibrations can trick the user into feeling all manner of sensations, including relief, where there is none.  Immersion is currently working on making the center digit on a virtual phone dial-pad feel as if it sits higher than the others, to give users a sense of where the other keys are in relation to it.

Pacinian, out of Spokaine, Washington, is another corporation involved in haptics.  Their chief sales and marketing officer, Mike Levin, says Pacinian uses an electrostatic process to add tactile sensations to gadgets.  In the case of a touchscreen, they apply two coats of a thin material to its surface, with a thin pocket of air sandwiched between the two layers. Then, when you press on an image of a button, an electrical charge is triggered that instantly pulls the surface away from your finger. They plan on marketing a flat keyboard with this technology in 2012 and are licensing the technology to other hardware manufacturers as well. Levin says he expects to see it used in some casino games next year and integrated into dashboards and in-car displays in some automobiles by 2013.

Senseg, out of Helsinki, takes another approach to adding a tactile experience to products. Their “E-Sense” technology is basically a coating they say can be applied to almost any surface, flat or curved (including phone cases).  Then, software controlling it will be able to slightly raise individual “tixels”, or tactile pixels, in patterns on the surface.  In demonstrations given of the product in use on a touchscreen, users reported feeling faint, but discernible textures.  Executives at Senseg claim that in future versions, E-Sense will allow such things as online shoppers feeling simulations of clothing materials they’re viewing, such as the ridges in a pair of corduroy pants.

Still another business vying for a piece of the haptic feedback market is Artificial Muscle, Inc.  Their “Vivitouch” technology is being sold by way of electronic actuators that interested parties can purchase and integrate into their products.  They give examples of Vivitouch enhancing gaming on smartphones by allowing users to feel the rolling of virtual dice or gunshots, as well as simulating pressing buttons or toggling switches.  A basic version of their technology is already used by Mophie, for an iPod Touch case called the Pulse.  The Pulse case listens for sounds made in the games being played, and generates vibrations to correspond with them.

Perhaps the most radical of these haptic technologies comes from a startup company in Silicon Valley called Tactus.  They aren’t willing to discuss many details of their work at this time, but a pair of patents filed by company executives describes a touchscreen that can “grow” shapes out of its surface!  Imagine keyboard keys that rise up from the screen on demand, and recede again when not needed.  Launch a game to have game controller buttons and knobs form.  According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, they’ve seen a confidential letter from Tactus that claims they’ve been in talks with Apple, Nokia, and Samsung and Tactus has been able to demonstrate that their technology does indeed work. Applications for government grants and patents Tactus filed indicate that their process involves a liquid or gas placed between two surfaces that can be made to expand or contract in localized areas.

Even the open source community has gotten into the act, with cross-platform compatible development libraries and a support forum available at H3D.org (sponsored by SenseGraphics, a commercial business out of Stockholm).  It appears that quite a few projects using these resources revolve around building training devices for dentists, surgeons, and other medical staff. There’s nothing stopping anyone from utilizing this software for consumer electronics gadgetry if they wish.

It remains to be seen if all of these different attempts at providing haptic feedback ultimately survive, but it’s clear that this is a whole new frontier that’s just breaking into the mainstream.  In the next few years, it may become laughable to think that people were actually happy poking at flat images on a piece of glass!