New Nokia tactile touchscreen is enough to make Jobs weep.
When Apple rolled out the iPhone, the mobile phone world went touchscreen crazy. That isn’t to say that other major handset makers didn’t have touchscreen devices before the iPhone hit the market.
One of the biggest drawbacks to many users of the iPhone is the lack of tactile feedback from the onscreen keyboard. Nokia has some new technology that is set to revolutionize the touchscreen phone market and make the iPhone green with envy.
Nokia’s Haptikos technology doesn’t simply vibrate under your finger like some touchscreen devices, but clicks and feels, according to The Red Ferret Journal, just like you are clicking a real key. The description of the technology sounds very similar to the touchscreen feedback patent filed by Apple recently in that it uses a screen with two elements that move to provide the feel of clicking something.
Roope Takala, Senior Program Manager at Nokia’s research labs told The Red Ferret Journal, “The basic technology is not that difficult,” he explained, “We inserted two small piezo sensor pads under the screen and engineered in a 0.1mm movement in the screen itself. What’s taken the time has been fine tuning the movement and response to mimic exactly the sensation of pressing a real key.”
The technology works well; according to reports, you forget it’s an onscreen keyboard.
The first Nokia phone rumored to be getting this tactile touchscreen technology is the upcoming Nokia S60 Touch phone seen at recent Nokia demos. Nokia says its next challenge is to get different type of feedback suitable for on screen scrolling and paint/draw programs.
News source: DAILYTECH
