Toshiba brings texture to touch (video)

Reach out and touch whatever screen you're reading this on. What if, instead of feeling the glass or plastic beneath your finger, you could experience the texture of a brush, woodgrain, or even a stone? Well, Toshiba's working on just such a project, which operates on the basis of a film affixed to, say, a smartphone's touch panel -- electrical currents are sent through this layer, and your digits are shot up with the simulated sensation of touching those various surfaces. Senseg, the company behind this tech, has been around since 2008, but perhaps this recent prototype demo is a sign that things might actually start going places. It's not like there'll be a shortage of imaginative uses for such precise tactile feedback. Video after the break.

[Brokinarrow Posted May 21st 2010 1:40PM]

And the pr0n industry rejoices...

[Brokinarrow Posted May 21st 2010 4:11PM]

@cwalters74 - Well obviously, but my comment was more fun :-b

[collinrs Posted May 21st 2010 4:17PM]

@cwalters74

Well, now the blind can touch virtual nipples too. Everybody wins.

[GeneralThade Posted May 21st 2010 1:40PM]

Porn on my handheld device will be epic.

[HighFlyer Posted May 22nd 2010 8:51AM]

@GeneralThade

On your Android device of course ;)

[Nod Flenders Posted May 21st 2010 1:43PM]

Now it also feels like I'm wearing nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all

[Dafrety Posted May 21st 2010 1:56PM]

@Nod Flenders
Stupid sexy Flenders!.

[Brokinarrow Posted May 21st 2010 4:11PM]

lol, win!

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 21st 2010 1:44PM]

Can they make it feel like a vajayjay?
Also -- gotta love the duct tape in the video...for such advanced technology you think their demo would be a tad bit more elegant.

[SeeKo Posted May 21st 2010 1:51PM]

That is bloody brilliant. They should combine it with this other technology that gives haptic responses to the entire cellphone case. That's stuff not even Sci/Fi writers have thought of. I think it's amazing. :-)

[artriste Posted May 21st 2010 1:53PM]

Wow. Can't wait to try Wobble iBoobs on this.

[ddschneider1972 Posted May 21st 2010 9:16PM]

@artriste Not on the iPhone...Steve Jobs fears the nipple.

[Alex Posted May 21st 2010 1:54PM]

Wow, this could be huge.

I still think even this will not replace the definitive feel of physical keys, but it could really do away with the major drawback of touchscreens.

[FADE Posted May 21st 2010 1:58PM]

where is smellovision?

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 21st 2010 2:20PM]

@FADE
There actually was a device called "iSmell" that eminated aromas...it did not do very well, lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismell

[Al Jeffers Posted May 21st 2010 5:13PM]

@DoctarPeppar

iSmell because iFarted

[Yota Posted May 21st 2010 2:03PM]

iBooks will be even greater

[benjgvps Posted May 21st 2010 4:08PM]

@Yota

Fuck yeah, papercuts.

[Greg7388 Posted May 21st 2010 7:40PM]

@Yota Maybe even for blind people reading braille.

[BenF1 Posted May 21st 2010 2:10PM]

Your failing to see what this means. Truly tactile feed back from virtual keyboards.. It will revolutionise handhelds and laptops...

[dave1812 Posted May 21st 2010 2:13PM]

@BenF1

the BB Storm2 screen ALREADY has great tactile feedback for typing.

[BenF1 Posted May 21st 2010 2:14PM]

@dave1812 can you feel the keys? Then return back to a normal screen? I thought not.

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 21st 2010 2:21PM]

@dave1812
Yeah and it's garbage.

[Hazdaz Posted May 21st 2010 2:26PM]

Oh this is VERY VERY cool technology.

This is the kind of innovation that can finally make me want a touchscreen phone without a physical keyboard.

[chekhonte Posted May 21st 2010 2:46PM]

@Hazdaz YES! My sentiments exactly except that I own a iphone for 2 years and still haven't gotten used to the keyboard or a virtual d-pad on games. I have the pens in my pocket protector crossed in hopes that this tech can actually work well.

[Robert Jordan Posted May 21st 2010 2:44PM]

I was recently thinking about a screen like this for use with braille, but the applications are pretty vast for something like this.

[nickcv Posted May 21st 2010 2:46PM]

@Robert Jordan I was about to post the exact same thing. Ebooks and smartphones for blind people... this is gonna be pretty cool.

[HektikLyfe Posted May 21st 2010 2:52PM]

This has awesome potential. Combine these with the robotic arm replacements to give people the sensation of touch...

We have cyborgs.

[pr1te Posted May 21st 2010 2:55PM]

Hmm- this might evolve into VR applications where you have gloves or an entire suit that stimulates your sense of touch according to what you are interacting with in the VR world. Making it that much more immersive.
I would imagine porn would be the first app. of course.

[Cy Starkman Posted May 21st 2010 8:32PM]

@pr1te

Yeah the first ones existed at the end of the 80's that I'm aware of.

Haptics is old. A meta material that pipes electricity into your body, not so old but not there yet.

I'm quite surprised at the comments here.

[Kuipo Posted May 21st 2010 3:15PM]

I'd rather use my device's battery life for things like... you know, being on.

While this is an interesting concept. It will use power, and if there's anything that portable devices are short on... it's power (battery life).

[Kuipo Posted May 21st 2010 3:18PM]

@Hazdaz Really? People still think this? The lack of physical buttons actually allows the average person to type faster since the software (at least on the iPhone) can guess which letter you were trying to hit and correct it for you.

I'll agree with chekhonte that the D-Pad design is terrible on the iPhone... but at this point I wouldn't want a device with real keys. It would slow my typing down considerably since I'd have to correct my own typing mistakes I would make trying to push the tiny little buttons.

[SirNoDroin Posted May 21st 2010 3:28PM]

@Kuipo this is false,

I can assure you I can type faster on a blackberry then I can on my iphone.


Different strokes for different folks, don't impose your person experience as fact on others.


also Iphone predictive text sucks...then again i mostly type in l337

[WYGUY Posted May 21st 2010 3:43PM]

@Kuipo
Auto-correction is done in software, so it's not a virtual/physical keyboard issue, just a software issue.

[Lord Humongous Posted May 21st 2010 4:45PM]

@SirNoDroin

not if you use swype or shapewriter

[Kuipo Posted May 21st 2010 5:05PM]

@WYGUY That's a good point. I have yet to see anyone else introduce this feature of their software in such an effective manner; but you're right, it could be be implemented.

@SirNoDroin While you may be able to type faster, I still stand by my statement that the average person likely types faster on a touch screen device once they get over the idea that they need the actual feeling of keys there.

Sidenote: Why are my replies not showing as replies to other's posts? I clicked the blue "REPLY" button. *scratches head*

[chekhonte Posted May 21st 2010 5:22PM]

@Kuipo I'm a horrible speller and need to watch what I'm typing. Even skilled iphone users I've seen still need to look at the keyboard because there is not tactile cues that tell you where the keys are. I used to own (please don't laugh at me) a sidekick LX and could use the keyboard with out looking.

[Kuipo Posted May 21st 2010 5:29PM]

@chekhonte I'm confused... is that an argument for or against physical keys or touchscreens? They all have the keyboards about 1 inch from the words you're typing. I generally watch both when typing on my iPhone. Generally I look at the words I'm typing, but again my statement was for the average user. I think the average user watches the keys they are pressing on small devices and eventually moves towards looking more and more at the screen. Even switching from one tactile key'ed device to another would cause most people to regress back to looking at the keys more often until they've gotten used to it.

[War Machine Posted May 21st 2010 3:20PM]

Full QWERTY keyboards on mobile devices have just been rendered completely unnecessary.

[WYGUY Posted May 21st 2010 3:40PM]

Now you really can reach out and touch someone with Skype!

[hunterholder Posted May 21st 2010 5:59PM]

It would be... shocking... if there were any glitches with this technology.


I'm not trying to give any ideas(yes I am), but if hackers got their hands on this, it would make for a great prank!

[Levi Posted May 21st 2010 6:52PM]

I've thought long and hard (giggity) about how we could implement real tactile information into touch panels. The idea came up when I was "clicking" a button on a touch screen phone, and thought "how much cooler and more intuitive would this be if the button was raised and you actually had to press it down before the touch screen registered the input?" Not like that BB Storm crap, but a layer on top of the capacitive layer that can raise on a per-pixel basis, and can change resistance depending on the instance. Buttons would have a certain resistance that you'd have to push through in order to click a button, for example. This sounds a bit less accurate, but hey, someday.

[sharkync Posted May 21st 2010 11:20PM]

Apple should be patenting this any second.

[brutek Posted May 24th 2010 12:53PM]

Motorola prototyped this to add buttons to touchscreen displays back in 2000. Of course no leadership to bring it to market, then abandoning research.