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The "Feel Screen": The Pros and Cons of a Tactile Interface for the Next iPad (or iPhone?)

This article is more than 10 years old.

One of the last rumors swirling around the launch of what turned out to be "The New iPad," was that Apple was going to incorporate some form of tactile interface to the screen that would use some form of "advanced haptics." The most immediate idea is that this kind of technology could allow users to find screen features, like buttons, by touch and to get tactile feedback (like clicks and buzzes) from those features. Beyond that, one can imagine what "high-resolution" tactile feedback could do for games, virtual musical instruments and any number of apps that make use of spatial illusions.

Before I discuss whether this is a good idea, here's a little history:

If the idea of finding buttons by touch reminds you of the Blackberry, it's no accident. Blackberry users have long held that their device was superior to pure touchscreen phones because of the tactile feedback of the physical keyboard. In an attempt to let their customers have their cake and eat it too, Blackberry incorporated the SurePress touchscreen into their Storm smartphone. The implementation of it was flawed, however, leading to a recall of the first model and, in general, users were less than impressed.

In the mean time, smartphone and especially tablet users have gotten used to virtual keyboards and buttonless gestural interfaces. PatentlyApple reported on a new Apple patent a year ago that used haptics, but it was mostly concerned with modifying phone alerts based on ambient conditions. The report on Wednesday about using piezoelectric actuators to create a "haptic feedback layer", is of a different order, and suggests higher tactile resolution than what RIM has come up with.

The rumor about the most recent iPad concerned Apple using a technology from Senseg (see image above) that "creates a sophisticated sensation of touch using Coloumb’s force, the principle of attraction between electrical charges. By passing an ultra-low electrical current into the insulated electrode, Senseg’s Tixel™, the proprietary charge driver can create a small attractive force to finger skin. By modulating this attractive force a variety of sensations can be generated, from textured surfaces and edges to vibrations and more."

Whether Blackberry (or Apple or other Android manufacturers) will adopt Senseg's technology or whether Apple will deploy their own haptic technology remain to be seen. For now, the question is, do users really want it?

In any complex system, the adding of a new feature can have negative consequences for existing functionality. My initial enthusiasm for this particular feature has been tempered the more I have researched it, so with that in mind, here are my list of the pros and cons of the tactile screen interface, of "feel screen":

Pros:

Another Differentiator: Apple has been in the business of staying ahead of their competitors in the smartphone and table markets by coming up with superior implementation of features that raise their products to higher levels of functionality and user satisfaction. Could tactile feedback be one of these features?

The All-Purpose Simulator: Combining high-resolution retina displays with tactile technology creates the possibility for all kinds of sensory illusions that make the touch screen space more enterable and compelling.

Game On!: As the screen resolution and processing speed of the new iPad is moving iOS from a platform for "casual gaming" to "serious gaming," the introduction of "haptic effects" could give game makers another cool way to engage gamers.

Electronic Braille: BrailleTouch is an example of a recent advance that uses touch screen technology for eyes-free text entry. Imagine what a tactile screen interface could do for braille users and people with other disabilities. And as we've seen from the development of web standards that emerged out of web accessibility efforts, these kind of advances lead to improvements for users of all ability levels.

Cons:

Who Needs it?: As Jake Rosati writes in Today's iPhone, "I’ve never encountered a device with haptic feedback—whether it’s via vibration, or even Blackberry’s SurePress technology—that I’ve liked. What’s more, with 3 million people clamoring to get their hands on the haptic-free new iPad, I’m not sure messing with such a successful system is worth it. I could see something like this being successful when the first iPhone, or even the first iPad, came out. People were still unsure of how easy button-less device would be to use. But now with many people quite adept, and even preferring the smooth glass over physical button, it just doesn’t make sense. To me, this sounds like a step backwards. It’s all about swipes and gestures now." Well said, Jake.

More Noise to Deal With: In terms of the actuators of Apple's new patent, Senseg is quick to point out that, "Unlike effects created by mechanical vibration and piezo solutions, Senseg is silent." But not only  is there the issue of low-level audio noise to deal with in some haptic implementations, but also the overall sensory clutter that has to be considered.

Another Drain on Batteries: With reports about the limitations of battery chemistry, Apple really has to consider what features they implement that could put additional burden on power usage.

The Rigors of the Reference Product: Most importantly, unlike the wilds of Android, Apple has so far only released a single product type at a time with variations only in memory. They would have to think long and hard about, for instance, incorporating an LCD projector into an iphone, though these already exist for Android devices. So, unless they complicate their product offerings (which is unlikely given the success of their rollouts) any new feature like haptics would be all or nothing.

The bottom line is that if Apple can come up with a tactile touch screen that works at the same high standards as its other user interface features it may have a winner here, but barring that, perhaps it should leave it to be feature for dedicated gaming controllers or niche Android products.

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