Nokia perfecting tactile feedback on touch screens
We love touch screens at jkOnTheRun but no question the lack of tactile feedback when a button on the screen is pressed is sorely missed. It’s a mental thing, and everyone knows how mental we are here. The desire for good tactile feedback on such screens has me all excited this morning with the word that Nokia has been working on this technology and are showing demonstrations to people I trust of the new technology. Red of The Red Ferret Journal got a hands-on showing of the new tactile feedback on a Nokia n770 and he was blown away.
One thing I can say is that this is the first technology I’ve seen andplayed with which could genuinely revolutionise the use of handhelddevices in general. The ability to touch type at reasonable speeds on atouchscreen is something which every phone, PDA and handheld computermanufacturer would give their right arm for, and it looks as though thetechnology is about to reach the marketplace with a bang. I can’t wait.
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If they combine this with a pressure sensitive touchscreen so I can “locate” my fingers by dragging them over the virtual keys, I will be very interested in the possibilities.
I’m sure they will steal the technology from Immersion Corp. and not pay royalties. The court system is flawed, therefore, it’s cheaper to litigate in the US, and avoid paying World Wide royalties rates.
I retract what i said. I believe Nokia has a license from Immersion
Richard, you are correct. Nokia has signed a licensing agreement with Immersion. I’m sure there will be several more onboard soon. I just returned a Palm Centro to Sprint for 2 reasons:
1. It was supposed to be GPS enabled but isn’t, and
2. the touchscreen, while very nice, is a hazard to use while driving. You have to keep your eyes continually on the touchscreen to identify numbers, unlike standard phones that you can “feel” the numbers on the keypad.
My experience leads me to wait until the Immersion technology is available here in the US. Samsung, also contracted with Immersion, has already released tactile feedback phones in Korea.
This would make an awesome addition to that rumored apple tablet in the other post…
Nice way to make sure the on screen keyboard works nicely.