“In an effort to make touchscreens less static, Apple has proposed that future iPhones and iPads could feature actuators that would provide haptic feedback to users, and also include sensors that would measure the force at which a user touches the screen,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The concept was unveiled this week in a patent application discovered by AppleInsider entitled ‘Touch-Based User Interface with Haptic Feedback,'” Hughes reports. “The use of actuators underneath a touchscreen could allow users to actually feel elements on the screen, such as buttons or controls.”
Hughes reports, “Rather than simply vibrating the device when a button is tapped, as some touchscreen devices do, Apple’s solution could utilize piezoelectric actuators for ‘localized haptic feedback.’ This would allow the user to feel a virtual button on their fingertips. Specifically named as products that could benefit from haptic feedback in the application are the iPhone and iPad, as well as the Magic Mouse and Apple’s notebook trackpads.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The company that gets this right first, and patents it, will be sitting pretty for many years.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]