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haptic technology

Apple still exploring haptic touch for iPhones, iPads

Haptic technology allows users to "feel" buttons on a touch-screen device by providing localized feedback when users' fingers touch button or control areas. A patent application filed in late March showed Apple's version of haptic technology, a process that would use piezoelectric actuators under the display to provide feedback.

A new patent application, uncovered by Patently Apple, shows that Apple is taking its haptic inquiry a step further. Apple's new displays for touch-screen devices would be flexible, allowing for a layer of the screen to actually raise itself when a button or control area is available … Read more

Haptic tech taps touch screen you can feel

If you've been avoiding all touch-screen devices because you love the feel of physical buttons, a new kind of tactile screen may have you singing a different tune.

Researchers at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have come up with next-generation haptic technology that creates the feeling of pressing actual buttons on a touch screen.

"We're adding the sense of touch to tactile surfaces," said Christophe Winter, a Ph.D. student at EPFL's Integrated Actuators Laboratory (LAI) who is writing his thesis on the subject. "The term 'touch screen' that's used to describe current technology is really a misnomer, because they only provide visual and auditory feedback."

To achieve this, the scientists at the LAI used a piezoelectric material that vibrates when voltage is applied to it. The vibrations are undetected by human touch, but they create a thin layer of air between the touch screen and a user's finger to give the feeling of a raised surface. … Read more