Comments on: Texas Instruments’ Piezo haptic feedback allows precise control

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Human Evolution

1. Remove physical keyboard
2. Develop Touchscreen Technology
3. Spend millions developing a feature such as this Haptic feedback to allow the user to feel as if it is a physical button.

It’s kind of like NASA which spent millions of dollars to design/produce a space pen, when the Russians said “f*ck it” stuck with the pencil. Cmon people.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Hey turn_self_on, thanks for your comment. I passed along your response to Eric Siegel, product marketing engineer for touch screen controllers and haptic drivers at TI, and here’s what he had to say:

“Surface
recreation is definitely a next step in terms of haptic feedback and I fully
believe that piezo actuators have the capability to deliver it, but
unfortunately it’s a combination of the actuator, driver, and waveforms that need
to be balanced to deliver that specific user end experience. I know some
very smart people are working on it, but I haven’t seen a working prototype to
create any sort of edge of button effect yet. But, keep your eyes peeled, because you
never know what could happen in the next 1-3 years.”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

This reads like something really interesting. Especially if one can feel that one hit the side of a key or button rather than straight on it. Sadly, the haptics that allow one to find the edge of a button (like say on a keyboard) is still far off. Nearest i have read about is the use of electric fields to induce a experience of texture.