New technology may make it possible for a person to “feel” images that appear on a touch screen. Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology have developed an array of 400 individually controlled ultrasonic speakers connected to a touch screen.
The input coming out of the speakers flows out as a single point pushing on the skin. Collectively, these points mirror whatever has been drawn or written on the touch pad and can be felt by a second person holding up a palm to the array.
Developers formulated the technology originally to convey the emotion behind touch screen messages, but it is more likely that these new developments will have more practical functions in the future, like assisting in mobile communication for those who are blind or visually impaired.
Touch screen technology itself used to be a thing of the past. Now, used anywhere from ATM machines to smart phones, touch screens are becoming more and more common place and their future looks bright. Innovations are underway to streamline touch and human senses.
Senseg’s E-Sense technology, in Sweden, is working on touch screens using “tixels” or “tactile-pixels” to generate an electric field that transmits various sensations to a user’s skin. With further development, this technology may help blind people read Braille or even allow users to hold a long lost friend’s hand or touch someone’s cheek.
The technology may also help to create buttons and knobs that would facilitate in the mobile gaming world, which is becoming more and more popular. Handset makers currently struggle for placement of controls on the limited space of smartphones and may also find a use for tactile displays.
Projects are also in development to make touch screens “feel” more like physical ones, ultimately making them easier and friendlier to use. Other research includes technology that could transmit feeling from the front side of the touch screen to the back, giving users the ability to feel a message in palm of the hand holding the device.
Japan’s University of Electro-Communications is working on developing a device that would allow the user to feel strokes and taps on the palm of the hand-holding device, a gel like substance on the device would allow it to conform to the natural shape of the hand.
The idea for this technology is to be able to create the feeling of an object or a word being traced on to the palm. While both developments are just that, developments, they reflect the evolution of the new standard. One can only wonder, what comes next?