Touch Screen Gadget

Nokia patented Haptikos a touchscreen prototype

Posted by sawaru | Category: Mobile Phone, Trend Watch & News

Haptikos is only at the prototype stage at the moment, but lets hope Nokia gets its skates on and combines it with S60 Touch UI to create a killer touchscreen phone.

One of the big problems with touchscreens is the lack of physical feedback compared to pushing buttons. Nokia’s haptikos tactile touchscreen system could change all that by adding a layer than can be made dynamically bumpy, so it feels more like pressing real keys and less like just swiping a smooth surface.

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Early spied BlackBerry Thunder photo

Posted by sawaru | Category: Mobile Phone

Enough with the iPhone frenzy news? Blackberry answer to iPhone maybe your next choice.

And, to make sure the world isn’t so caught up in iPhone hype that they forget about the rest of the smartphone industry’s touchscreen offerings, it seems that RIM has let a few pictures of their highly anticipated BlackBerry Thunder handset.

A quick refresher - the BlackBerry Thunder will be toting RIM’s new BlackBerry OS - BlackBerry OS 4.7 - and a localized haptic feedback system that vibrates a specific region of touch-input rather than vibrating the entirely device. 

via IntoMobile

2008 is a Haptic year across many industry player

Posted by admin | Category: Car & Bike, Home Appliance, Industry, MP3 Player, Mobile Phone, Multi Touch, Trend Watch & News

Haptic (the sense of touch) technology, which is all the rage in mobile phone market, is spreading to a wide variety of IT products including navigation and large billboard as well as other mobile phones like MP3P. Haptic is a vibration technology to interface the user and is highly recognized as a feedback technology of mobile devices with touch screen.

Click here on benefits and values of Haptic

Samsung Electronics announced on 13 that it will adopt Haptic technology for the next model of MP3P ‘YEPP P2’ carrying 3 inch touch screen as Anycall Haptic phone sales reached 100,000 units in one month after release. “Haptic technology is essential to all touch based mobile devices. MP3P adopting the technology will be released within this year.” said Park,
Du-eui, the Head of planning team in DM at Samsung. It means Samsung Electronics, leading haptic technology through mobile phone, wants to lead market with various mobile devices.
Navigation companies are moving quickly to adopt the technology. Currently, two leading navigation companies are developing haptic based navigations for car with a goal of releasing in the second half of this year. Navigation adopting haptic can enable drivers confirm input without seeing screen. A researcher of the navigation industry said, “To increase safety for users, we are developing prototype adopting haptic function and if the issue of production price is resolved, we will release quickly.”
DID (Digital Information Display) companies are reportedly considering adopting haptic technology. The reason for their interest is that it enables ads of experience. For example, if you touch DID displaying hamburger, you feel as if pluck off bread and see lettuce, cheese and ham.
Seo, Dong-hee, the President of Emersion Korea, a vibration solution company, said, “Current technology enables haptic technology to adjust length and height of vibration in a 40 inch display. In the near future, people can touch billboard in streets.

[etnews]

Haptic feedback benefits and values

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

A summary of recent published findings on the value of haptic feedback in human-computer interaction.

A key advantage of computer-driven interfaces is the flexibility provided by a programmable, dynamic display. A single touch panel can replace many mechanical buttons, switches, and knobs, and provide increased communication with the user. But the transition from mechanical knobs,
switches, and dials to electronic controls poses a challenge to interface designers: the expected tactile cues aren’t there.

As the scientific studies reviewed here indicate, haptic (tactile) feedback provides several benefits,
not the least of which is, according to research performed by NCR (NCR 2004), that it provides
an essential component in human-computer interaction (HCI) and has a quantifiable effect
on efficiency and error rates as well as user satisfaction.

Types of Haptic Feedback

Haptic feedback can be broadly divided into two modalities: vibrotactile and kinesthetic. Vibrotactile
feedback stimulates human subcutaneous tissue. It’s been employed in mobile phones, video console gamepads, and certain touch panels. Kinesthetic feedback focuses on the gross movement of the human body. It’s been employed in medical simulation
trainers, programmable haptic knobs, video game steering wheels, and virtual reality systems,
such as Immersion’s CyberForce® system. “Force feedback” is a term often used to describe vibrotactile and/or kinesthetic feedback.

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Immersion names new CEO, Clent Richardson

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

Immersion Corp , a supplier of feedback technology used in touch-screen devices, said on Thursday that Clent Richardson would replace Victor Viegas as chief executive on April 28.

Immersion said Viegas, who recently announced he was looking for a new CEO, would keep his role as chairman. It said Richardson, who was chief marketing officer at TiVo until March, would also be appointed to Immersion’s board.

Immersion’s haptic technology creates a vibration to give users of touch-screen device a sensation of having pressed a button. It is used in LG Electronics’ Venus and Voyager phones sold by Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications  and Vodafone Group Plc

Sony Corp also licenses the Immersion technology for use in its PlayStation 3 video game controller after settling a patent dispute with the company last year.

Richardson has also worked in marketing-related roles at Apple Inc maker of the touch-screen media-playing iPhone, and at Nortel Networks NETAS.IS.

New feeling’s touch sensor for iPhone

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

The technology that makes cell phones vibrate when people make a mistake while typing may help cut typing errors in touch-screen phones like the iPhone that lack the tactile feedback provided by a keyboard.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK claim that they can expel complications in touch-screen phones by using actuators like the ones used in cell phones to give a feeling of a keyboard.
Software called VibeTonz made by Immersion of San Jose, California, can get an actuator to move in different ways such as smoothly or jerkily.
Corporations like — Samsung and LG, which make touch-screen phones, use this to provide rudimentary ‘haptic’ feedback when a button is pressed, but according to Stephen Brewster, the study’s lead author, phones can do much more.
"The actuators are there, but people aren’t using them in the most effective way," New Scientist quoted Brewster as saying.
In order to create more sophisticated sensations, the research team strung together combinations of different VibeTonz.
A single pulse 30 milliseconds long gives the feeling of a button being clicked, while sliding a finger from one button to another prompts a half-second long buzz, providing a ‘rough’ feeling that tells the user they have strayed to another key.
Sliding the finger across a button causes the buzz to be ramped up and then down, giving the feel of a round button.
The team found that users typing speed and accuracy were significantly closer to results they achieved using a real keyboard, compared with when the haptics were disabled.

[infotech]