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Disney Engineers Develop Touch Screens That Mimic Tactile Sensations
Lucas123 writes "Engineers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh have developed an algorithm that creates the illusion of a 3D surface on touch screens. Using electrical impulses, the touch screen technology offers the sensation of ridges, edges, protrusions and bumps and any combination of those textures. While Disney is not alone in developing tactile response touchscreens, its researchers said the traditional approach has been to use a library of 'canned effects,' that are played back when someone touches a screen. Disney's algorithm doesn't just playback one or two responses, but it offers a set of controls that make it possible to tune tactile effects to a specific visual artifact on the fly. 'Our algorithm is concise, light and easily applicable on static images and video streams,' the researchers stated." This summer Disney unveiled AIREAL, a system designed to give tactile sensations to people using motion control devices.
It's a whole new world.
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Tactile feedback sounds like a decent idea. But I wish they'd work on the latency first. You get a much better 'physical' connection with the device when the latency is less than 50 or even 5 milliseconds.
The latest iPhone adds all sorts of scrolling gimmicks, and that'll unfortunately also have the effect of increased latency.
It's worth posting Microsoft's research on this again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOvQCPLkPt4
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But is pr0n going to be one of the first industries to make use of this technology?
I'd rather they take those stupid damned touchscreens out of cars completely. Give me physical knobs and buttons that stay in one place that I know where they are and I can make an adjustment without taking my eyes off of the road.
Touchscreens in cars are dangerous.
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