This is very cool. Nokia demoed a touch feedback system for its onscreen keyboard.
The trick is a piezo sensor below the key area. "“The basic technology is not that difficult,” he explained [Roope Takala], “We inserted two small piezo sensor pads under the screen and engineered in a 0.1mm movement in the screen itself. What’s taken the time has been fine tuning the movement and response to mimic exactly the sensation of pressing a real key.”
Interestingly, the feedback doesn't increase the speed of typing. "Funnily enough, although you think you’re typing faster than normal because of the feedback, in actual fact you’re not,” said Takala, “There’s just some sort of mental satisfaction that comes from typing with a tactile response."
When might this technology reach the market: "The new Haptikos technology will apparently be shipped with the upcoming Nokia S60 Touch phone that has been shown off at recent demos, and the team is busy working on the next challenge, which is to provide exact tactile replicas for scrolling and draw/paint programs."
[Found at Red Ferret Journal]


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