haptic feedback
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FingerFlux system uses magnets to add tactile feedback to touchscreens
We've seen a number of efforts that promise to make touchscreens more tactile, but none quite like this so-called FingerFlux system developed by a team of researchers from Germany's Aachen University. Its hook is a layer of magnets that lie beneath the touchscreen and react to a simple thimble that the user must wear. While that particular accoutrement could be considered a slight drawback, it does open up a number of interesting possibilities -- including the ability to draw your finger towards an item on the screen, and "lock" it in a certain area. What's particularly key, however, is that you're also able to feel a bit of feedback before you even touch the screen -- as opposed to other entirely screen-based options -- which could could let you operate something like media player controls without actually looking at your phone. Of course, it's all still a long ways from being shrunk down to phone-size, but the researchers do have a working prototype in a table-top device. Check it out in the video after the break.
KDDI shows off sensory enhancements for smartphone users, throws a free-viewpoint virtual concert
Japanese carrier KDDI's never been shy about showing off its latest and greatest from its lab, and here at CEATEC 2011 we got to lay our fingers on a couple of its in-development smartphone sensory enhancements, along with a free-viewpoint concert concept that's being researched on. The first demo we saw was actually the same haptic smartphone prototype that was unveiled back in May, but we thought it'd be nice to give it a go with our very own hands -- read on to find out how well it performed. %Gallery-135629%
ViviTouch haptic technology hands-on: electroactive polymer giving a 'high definition feel'
Haptic feedback isn't exactly something that'd blow people's mind these days, with most mobile devices and gaming controllers already packing a little vibrator to spice up one's gaming experience. While these motors do the job just fine for delivering the sensation of large engines and explosions, their monotonic performance and relatively high minimum output threshold means they can't reproduce finer vibration. For instance, you wouldn't be able to feel a guitar string fade away after a strum, nor would you feel the finer end of a spring recoil. This is where Bayer MaterialScience's ViviTouch -- previously dubbed Reflex -- tries to fill the void. For those who aren't familiar, the magic behind ViviTouch is its electroactive polymer (or EAP in short) -- imagine a thin sheet that consists of two electrode layers sandwiching a dielectric elastomer film, and when a voltage is applied, the two attracting electrodes compress the entire sheet. This slim, low-powered ViviTouch actuator module can be placed underneath an inertial mass (usually a battery) on a tray, thus amplifying the haptic feedback produced by the host device's audio signal between 50Hz and 300Hz (with a 5ms response time). %Gallery-134043%
Wrist sensor turns the back of your hand into a meaty haptic interface (video)
We're all intimately familiar with the backs of our hands, so why not use them as a haptic interface to control our gadgets? That's the idea behind the device pictured above -- a nifty little wrist sensor that turns your paw into a flesh-toned trackpad. Designed by Kei Nakatsuma, a PhD student at the University of Tokyo, this contraption employs infrared sensors to track a user's finger as it moves across the back of a hand. These movements are mirrored on a wristwatch-like display, thanks to seven IR detectors and a set of piezoelectric sensors, effectively turning any digit into an organic stylus or mouse. Nakatsuma, who unveiled his work at this week's SIGGRAPH, says his creation can't handle the more complicated, pinching or rotating gestures you could manipulate on most smartphone touchscreens and acknowledges that the screen can be difficult to read in direct sunlight. But the underlying technology could pave the way for similarly handy designs, while allowing users to interact with their gadgets without having to constantly glance at their screens, or go fishing in their pockets. Feel your way past the break to see a video of the device in action.
Apple patent application takes the hard keys out of the keyboard, promises a flat surface solution
Apple's giving us a patent application peek into its post-PC future, and it looks like hard keys will be so 2008. The recently revealed filing shows off a virtual, flat keyboard concept for Cupertino's line of non-iOS products that flirts with metal, plastic and glass form factors. Using a combination of piezoelectrics, haptic feedback and acoustic pulse recognition, these prospective designs will be able to detect your finger-pounding surface input. If you're the fast-typing kind, you're probably wondering how your digits will recognize the keys sight unseen. Well, there's a few workarounds for that. In its metal and plastic iterations, Jobs and co. plan to stamp or micro-perforate the layout into place, while their glass counterpart would receive a graphical overlay. The application also promises an LED-lit display for hard to see conditions and the inclusion of capactive sensors to enable multi-touch functions, so you avoid e.e. cummings-style emails. Of course, applications aren't necessarily indicative of a surefire product, but those interested in tickling their imagination can give the source link a look.
Kinect-driven tactile bodysuit makes you tingle in eight different places
We know the US Army has already experimented with vibrating clothing, and soon it could be our turn. The trendy figure-hugger above is rigged with haptic actuators across the arms and torso, which respond when the wearer's body 'touches' virtual objects created via Microsoft's Kinect platform. The outfit's designers at the University of Aachen spent just a few hundred dollars on components, aside from the cost of the Kinect, so this might well have commercial potential. Click the source link if you're really keen to see a concept video -- although it doesn't consist of much beyond a German dude doing the Hey Macarena in his socks. [Thanks, Jarod]
ViviTouch haptic tech offers range of feedback, aims to reinvent the mobile gaming wheel
When a company touts a product as being as revolutionary as the leap from black & white TV to color, it's either incredibly delusional or it has a damn good product on its hands. And judging by the buzz surrounding Artificial Muscle's ViviTouch tactile feedback technology and our own hands-on at CES, we're inclined to believe its braggart rights. Taking the "one-buzz-fits-all" approach and chucking it in the bin of 'ye olde tech of yesteryear,' the electroactive polymer tech creates a "spectrum of feeling" in the 50 - 300Hz range that registers with a user's hand in five milliseconds. We know what you're thinking -- haptic minutiae is fine and all, but what about my battery life? Well, if the company's CEO is to be believed, the vibrating touch interface drains 70 percent less juice than rival implementations -- so it's still hoggy, but not quite as hungry. If you're looking to get a feel of your own for these sensational claims, you'll have to wait for the Mophie Pulse to make its way to fourth generation iPod touch's later this year. Buzzwordy presser after the break.
KDDI haptic smartphone prototype promises up to seven layers of touch, only shows off two
Ah, another possibly vaporous, yet intriguing addition to a long line of haptic patents and prototypes. Today's offering: a KDDI smartphone mockup (utilizing Kyocera display technology) promising to render sensation through multiple layers of applied touchscreen pressure. Imagine depressing a camera shutter on a touchscreen, and you've got the idea. KDDI only had a screen sporting two haptic layers on hand when they demoed the prototype at Wireless Japan this week, but Kyocera reportedly told Akihabara News that the technology is capable of up to seven layers of tantalizing touch. Neat. Maybe we'll get a few authentic haptic touchscreens on the market and do away with all the vibrational fakery we've been seeing.
Probably Not the Wii 2, Part III: Come on, 'Feel' the Nintendo
The Swedish site Loading claims to have information about the next Nintendo console, specifically its mythical, gigantic touchscreen control device. The "Nintendo Feel," as Loading's source calls it, has a controller whose touchscreen provides haptic feedback -- it can change the texture of areas of the screen to provide touch-based feedback in response to onscreen events. Several phone-size screens are available with this technology, so it's not quite science fiction. And it would fulfill the "bizarre left-field technology that Nintendo pushes" requirement of every recent Nintendo console. But regardless, this is a rumor on top of a rumor about something we really don't know much about.%Poll-63266%
Enzo's Pinball gets you all touchy-feely with your phone
We got a hands-on sample of Haptify's haptic-powered apps a couple months back and came away intrigued, but yearning for more. Well, the company is finally ready to sate our penchant for playtime physicality with its first game, Enzo's Pinball. The game debuts with three tables ("more coming soon"), and is designed to let you feel every bump, rattle, and ricochet as if it were the real thing. It isn't identical to its tangible counterpart, but it is an upgrade over the rumble-free digital competition. Haptify's haptic black magic works with handsets running Android 2.1 and up, so there's an awful lot of potential pinball wizards out there. You can grab the game in the Android Market and it'll cost $1.49 to give in to your tactile desires.
Immersion releases SDK to put haptics in Android, helps smartphones move what their makers gave them
About a month ago, we told you about Immersion's MOTIV dev platform to design Android apps with tactile feedback, and today its release has finally arrived. The SDK comes with predesigned haptic effects, sample code, and the ability to tweak the duration and intensity of the feedback -- allowing developers to perfectly tailor the amount of shake in your groove thang. Interested parties can hit up the source link for the SDK download and start indulging in the haptic dark arts immediately.
Immersion's MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on
You may know that Immersion's haptic technology is in everything from surgical simulators to game controllers, but we're willing to bet you didn't know it's already baked into over 200 million existing devices -- including every Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and handsets by Nokia and LG. Now, using Android handsets' existing vibrator motors, a cheap software upgrade can inject force feedback into existing elements across the entire Android UI (2.2 and up), and with future devices -- built with multi-dollar piezoelectric actuators that vibrate the screen itself -- the haptic experience goes hi-fi. Now that it's revealed that little easter egg to the world, Immersion wants you to build some apps, and to that end it's releasing the MOTIV developer platform this March. Read all about it after the break. %Gallery-116198%
Mophie Pulse haptic game grip hands-on
Today at CES, Mophie showed off a prototype of its Pulse game grip for the 4th-generation iPod touch, which features battery-powered front-facing stereo speakers and haptic feedback by Reflex Technology. We spent some time using the Pulse and came away rather impressed. Game audio, music, and even the keyboard tick sound get translated into convincing pulses and vibrations. The iPod touch interfaces with the Pulse via the 3.5mm headphone jack, and a switch on the bottom left edge turns the haptic feedback on and off. As a bonus, the Pulse also offers full case protection. No word yet on availability or pricing, but you can check out the prototype in the gallery below. %Gallery-112607%
Kinect and haptics combine at the University of Washington to let you feel the future (video)
Sure, looking at the future is great and all, and that's what we feel like we're doing with all these wonderful Kinect hacks we've been covering lately. But what about feeling the future, man? That's what the kids at the University of Washington BioRobotics Laboratory are up to, taking the 3D images created by Microsoft's gaming peripheral and combining that with a 3D haptic controller, what looks to be a SensAble Phantom to us. The result? A so-called "haptic handshake," which looks even more uncomfortable than when Hank and Dean do their "Go Team Venture" routine. You can see both embedded after the break and decide for yourself. [Thanks, Jonas]
MS applies for patent on 'light-induced shape-memory,' a touchscreen that could touch back
Touchscreens are selfish lovers, taking your gentle caresses and impatient taps without offering a hint of feedback to you. We've seen attempts to change that, like prototypes from Toshiba and Senseg that add a bit of texture to a touchable surface, but now Microsoft might be looking to bring such dynamic tactility to the one of the biggest touchable surfaces: Surface. A recent patent application entitled "Light-induced Shape-memory Polymer Display Screen" describes a technique for a display that uses infra-red light to detect touch, but also to "selectively change a topography of the topography-changing layer." In other words: to make it bumpy or smooth. Certain wavelengths of light projected on the screen can cause areas of that topography layer expand or contract, which could finally mean all our cries for attention might finally be responded to in kind.
Shear feedback GPS navigation tells your fingers where to go, you just have to follow (video)
Keeping your eyes on the road gets ever more difficult with ever-bigger, ever-brighter GPS navigation units hitting retail. This product of University of Utah research could obsolete them entirely by tickling your fingers. It's called "shear feedback," effectively stretching the skin on your fingertip to tell you which way to go, achieved via a pair of old Thinkpad trackpoints, which were always too coarse a grit for our delicate tastes. The nub moves left or right to tell you where to go, and in a test distracted drivers were 24 percent more likely to follow directions through their digits than when told by cold, uncaring GPS lady. It's demonstrated after the break and looks like it would be perfect if we always drove at ten and two -- and wanted to get our fingerprints sandpapered off on every trip to the mall.
UC San Diego researchers repurpose 3D HDTV for heads-up VR system
Off the shelf 3D HDTVs may still be a bit expensive from a consumer's point of view, but they're a downright bargain compared to the usual high-end virtual reality gear. This gave some researchers at UC San Diego a bright idea: they've paired a $2,300 Samsung 3D TV with a half-silvered mirror and a touch-feedback controller for a haptic-enabled heads-up virtual reality system (or HUVR) that costs just $7,000 (without head tracking). What's more, they say their system actually outperforms the PARIS HUVR system developed twelve years ago (and still in use), which cost a full $100,000. Head on past the break for a quick video of the rig in action. [Thanks, Chase]
Tsunoda downplays lack of rumble in Kinect
Echoing statements made by Sony's Phil Harrison a few months before the introduction of the Dual Shock 3 (specifically, that rumble was a "last-generation feature"), Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda suggested that the lack of rumble from the Kinect camera wasn't a big deal, by suggesting that rumble isn't a big deal, in an interview with Edge. "The overwhelming thing we've discovered is that rumble is such a rudimentary form of haptic feedback," he said. "It's not like a little rumble in your palm is your whole way of interacting with the world – it's not like, oh, I stubbed my toe and I get a little rumble in my palm." The audiovisual presentation of Kinect games, he said, does more to immerse people than rumble, as evidenced by the instinctive reactions he observed from players. "In many of the games we have, people will crash a vehicle and they'll go totally like this [mimes dodging out of the way]! And even people playing games with a controller, there's always people doing this [mimes driving motion]." Tsunoda went on to sort of address the nagging question of lag. "The way we measure 'lag' is by putting people in front of the experience and measuring their thoughts. Either it feels good or it feels sloppy. It's not how many milliseconds, it's: 'Does it feel good? Does it react fast? Does it feel as if you're in control?'" So what is important isn't the amount of lag, but the perception of lag.
Apple patents another haptic feedback solution
AppleInsider reports that Apple is still bouncing around ideas for a screen that allows for haptic feedback on its iOS devices. A new patent filed this week outlines a system of screens on a device designed to not only detect touch and protect the underlying technology but also provide physical feedback in various areas of the screen. We've talked about this before, and Apple's been working on it for a while; as nice as the iPhone and iPad's screens are, there are some functions (like typing on a keyboard or hitting buttons in games) that call for a little more physical feedback. The patent also mentions things like giving users notice when they've reached a limit (as in scrolling or panning across pictures) or providing clicks on a scroll wheel. Unfortunately, this is all still in the prototype stages. For whatever reason (I can guess a few, from power requirements to manufacturing costs), Apple still hasn't included any of this technology in a production device. But they're obviously very interested in providing haptic feedback, so hopefully, it won't be too long before we see an idea like this come to fruition.
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.
