If you have tried to text someone on your iPhone you will know that the lack of tactile feedback makes it harder to use, even though the whizzy touch screen looks nice. You make more mistakes and you type more slowly than with a normal phone. The need to create tactile feedback was also highlighted for larger screens in my recent post on new display technologies. Now Stephen Brewster and colleagues at the University of Glasgow in the UK say they can banish these problems by using actuators like those that make cellphones vibrate to replicate the feel of a keyboard.

To create the required feedback his group strung together combinations of different vibrations. A single pulse 30 milliseconds long gives the feeling of a button being clicked, while sliding a finger from one button to another prompts a half-second long buzz, providing a “rough” feeling that tells the user they’ve strayed to another key. Sliding the finger across a button causes the buzz to be ramped up and then down, giving the feel of a round button.

The team found that users’ typing speed and accuracy were significantly closer to results they achieved using a real keyboard, compared with when the haptics were disabled.

This technology represents an efficient use of resources, in that the vibrator is already present in the phone, while significantly enhancing the experience for the phone user.

If a similar technology to this could be combined with the display technology I discussed in my earlier post on new display technologies, there could be significant potential for even more engaging consumer experiences at point of sale or brand interaction in future.