NEWS /
Touch to be Further Enhanced in Electronic Devices
05 Jan, 2009, 12:29 pm IST | by
tech2 News Staff
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The human touch is finely tuned to temperature. To replicate that effect in computers is a task that most researchers and analysts are now putting their efforts into. As the world is going digital, one of the front runners in bringing touch to the digital world is Immersion Corp., a leader in touch feedback. With the explosive popularity of the Apple iPhone and the HTC Touch, it has become clear that touch is the next best thing to revolutionize the pocket. The touch-surface juggernaut is on a march that will one day get rid of push buttons forever. Some areas where touch has seen takers has been in the field of televisions, washing machines, ovens, printers and workout machines according to senior analysts at the Consumer Electronics Association. To take it further, touch screens are now encroaching upon dashboards, landline phones, remote controls, stereo music players, navigators and digital cameras. Most touch screen innovators and researchers are working on new smart devices to make the human fingers feel as if they are actually working with the good old three-dimensional physical objects that evolution has taught us to trust. That's why competitors to the iPhone are focusing on the main thing it has yet to offer. Advertising directors for the BlackBerry Storm are doing their level best to make sure that their product is not just touchy, but touchy-feely. Hit its screen and you get a hint of a tactile response. This means a lot. "Haptics," as it is called, refers to the ability of people to sense the world around us through touch. Haptics is to touch as optics is to sight. "Haptics technology" refers to our ability to capture and transmit the vast array of information we get from feeling our three-dimensional world. Robot-assisted surgery has been around for some time, but the surgeon usually stares at a screen to see where the scalpel is going. The way to achieve superhuman steady hands, according to touch experts, is by engaging touch. Computer-mediated feedback makes one's hands feel as if they are maneuvering through goo. Or, say, if you want to peel a very thin membrane off the back of the retina but you don't want to puncture the retina itself. Virtual feedback can guide the surgeon's hands. Some niche products were the first to offer touch feedback such as the high-end Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs, medical devices, the Wii controller and some casino and bar-top games. But now more than 35 million touch-feedback cell phones have been shipped. Most of them far exceed in sophistication the mechanical, spring-loaded screen of the BlackBerry. One, from Samsung, can transmit a reasonable semblance of a beating heart. That's why it's time to start envisioning what our world will be like when every smart object routinely interacts with the brain this novel way. |
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