Fujitsu Labs Develops Prototype Haptic Sensory Tablet 24
Zothecula writes "Many smartphone or tablet users will already be familiar with receiving vibration feedback when typing on a virtual keyboard, but, though better than nothing, it's not particularly convincing. There have been attempts to make sensory feedback from touchscreens more realistic using electrostatic force, for example, or even creating the sensation of physical buttons by pushing liquid into prearranged tactile pixels, but Fujitsu is claiming to break new ground with its prototype haptic sensory tablet."
Don't worry (Score:4, Insightful)
Porn games will think of something.
Re:I can't actually think of an application (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding? I'm having trouble thinking of an application that wouldn't benefit from this type of feedback. A few, off the top of my head:
Tactile feedback on a keyboard yields a huge improvement in speed and accuracy.
Tactile feedback on buttons helps confirm that you're hitting the right one, and successfully activating it.
Tactile feedback on scrolling can give you another channel for judging speed or position.
Lack of tactile feedback is one of the single biggest impediments to "virtual control" usability. I don't know if this approach is the magic bullet, but I welcome all research in this direction.