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Textured Tactile Touchscreens
HizookRobotics writes "A new covering developed by Senseg and Toshiba Information Systems gives touchpads, LCDs, and other curved surfaces (eg. cellphones) programmable texture using a high-resolution electrotactile array — a grid of electrodes that excite nerves in the skin with small pulses of current to trick the body into perceiving texture, pressure, or pin-pricks depending on the current amplitude and electrode resolution. The new covering has many potential applications: interactive gaming, touchscreens with texture, robot interfaces, etc."
There's a new way to present the user with error messages!
It would be nice if this could be developed into a way to simulate a keyboard on a touchscreen. All these multitouch devices are great to use, but it can be a pain to type on them, so a way to give tactile feedback on what is a key vs two keys, would help a lot.
... the Rule 34 implementation of this.
Have gnu, will travel.
It sounds like this could be used for a braille interface, I wonder if a braille interface that can change on the fly would ultimately be beneficial or prove confusing though...
Maybe I'm in a minority, but I already feel an odd sensation of "pain" when I use that odd textured (array of bumps?) on some netbook touchpads. It's a weird radiating electrical buzz feeling up and into my wrist when I slide my finger across it. I know there is no pain and it's just an odd nerve interpretation, but it exists for me none-the-less. I'd hate to use something like that on a regular basis and it sounds like they are trying to replicate that exact feeling on touch devices. No thank you!
Tremendous Triumph: Textured Tactile Touchscreens Touted To Totally Transform Technology
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
There have been moving Braille output devices in the past. They were used in the days of text terminals. One can be seen in the movie Sneakers.
Is Star Trek really predicting things or is it more that the current generation of geeks were raised on Star Trek and they make it happen?
In at least one instance it was taking a Rodenberry idea and making it happen. He was approached by Disney, who wanted doors that would open and close automatically like Star Trek did. He had to sadly inform them that the "tech" behind the doors was called "stagehands". Somebody finally (don't know if it was Disney Imagineers or someone else) saw it ind invented them; self-opening doors were in most supermarkets within ten years. Citation: Walt Disney's biography (sorry, I have no no ISBN)
My first flip phone was a Motorola Star Tek, which did resemble the original Star Trek communicators.
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