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Wednesday May 17, 2006
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Most ATMs offer a little LCD screen with just enough buttons to let you get your money without getting too confused. Of course, there's often that moment where you hit the display repeatedly, trying to hit the right button and get it to respond. You lean down, squint, push again, and usually mange to select the button almost by accident.
Adding audible clicks could help this situation, but what if you could feel your finger hitting the virtual button? San Jose, CA-based Haptics technology company Immersion Corp., an innovator in vibrotactile feedback medical training equipment, cars, gaming and mobile phones has a new solution that may hold the answer.
Immersion's new TouchSense Technology for Touch Screens combines vibro feedback with finger-position recognition and interpolation to deliver tactile feedback on standard touch screens. This feedback can register as bumps, low vibrations, ticks, clicks, slides, you name it. All of it is coupled with audible feedback to enhance the experience.
The technology is actual fairly simple. Immersion separates the existing touch screen from the display and affixes it to a thin metal frame that is, itself, connected to four actuators. Each actuator contains two steel pieces and a coil. The steel moves apart when the coil is charged and back together when the charge is removed. The actuators and screen connect to a small motherboard that controls the amount and type (also know as profile) of vibration delivered to the touch screen.
Immersion actuators come in two sizes. One for small screens, roughly 12-to-15 inches, similar to what you'd find at an ATM, and a larger one for 19-inch-or-so touch screens. Company representatives say the TouchSense technology adds roughly the same cost to a device as adding the touch sensitivity itself.
TouchSense will make its debut later this year in the casino gaming market, likely in some of the video slots and poker machines. Immersion has already inked a deal with 3M Touch Systems, which, reportedly, makes a majority of the touch-sensitive screens for video-gambling displays. Immersion is also working with Volkswagen and SMK for car integration (think GPS screens) and expects TouchSense PDAs and phones to hit the market sometime next year.
Posted By:
Technoride
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