“Apple has been working on delivering advanced haptics for some time now,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Most recently Apple’s new MacBook and MacBook Pro update introduced Force Touch to its trackpad.”
“Today the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals new advances in haptics that will allow users to feel cold steel or the heat of a hot cement surface on iDevice displays or advanced trackpads on MacBooks,” Purcher reports. “In fact, Apple notes that in order to deliver the best haptic experience that could deliver such sensations, they’ll introduce a trackpad surface made of diamond material which has very interesting properties.”
“Apple’s invention relates to systems and methods for simulating materials using touch surfaces,” Purcher reports. “In one or more embodiments, a system for simulating materials using touch surfaces may include at least one touch surface, at least one actuator or at least one temperature control device, and at least one control unit. The control unit may control the actuator or the temperature control device to cause at least a portion of the touch surface to simulate a material.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s new Force Touch trackpad, with its spooky cool simulated clicks, is only the beginning!
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