Touchscreens get Force Feedback feel

Boston (MA) - Immersion announced at the Society for Information Display conference that it will offer its "Touchsense" technology, known mainly as Force Feedback in joysticks, for Touchscreens. The technology aims to create an illusion of physical buttons to increase the usability and functionality of displays.

Touchsense is one of those marvels of innovation that often is overlooked, but has a significant impact on the way how we use certain types of electronics. The technology was introduced more than a decade ago in gaming controller devices such as joysticks with the goal to simulate for example the natural behavior of a steering wheel using chips and motors to provide realistic physical impacts.

Since then, Immersion came up with a range of ideas for Touchsense and has been expanding the technology slowly but consistently into other areas such as automotive and medical applications.

Immersion’s latest idea is to add Touchsense to touchscreens. Instead of just feeling the hard, unresponsive touchscreen surface, users perceive that buttons depress and release, the company said.

According to Mike Levin, a vice president at Immersion, the company equipped touchscreens with an overlay surface that can be interactively moved by using actuators, controllers, haptic effect authoring software and application programming interfaces (APIs). While bending would only work with smaller displays, the overlay could be directed in any direction, Levin said. As a result the human brain is tricked into believing that fingers are touching and object rather than just a flat surface.

Levin believes that especially car manufacturer will adapt Touchsense displays for example for control screens of navigation systems or climate controls. The technology allows the use of touch increments based on pressure and time : "It can work much like a switch to turn up the volume or change the temperature setting," Levin said. It would also be easier to use than existing touchscreens by providing direct feedback whether a button is pressed hard enough or not.

The Touchsense LCD is reminiscent of Immersion’s idea of the Force Feedback mouse from the mid 1990s - a product that never saw large production numbers. Both devices are navigation devices, but Immersion has learned from its mistakes and has changed its marketing strategy : "The Force Feedback mouse was an aftermarket product mainly for gamers. The Touchsense screen will be standard feature that is integrated in products from the beginning," Levin said.

Immersion expects to have a production-ready technology available for manufacturers within "six to nine months". Automotive and medical devices using the technology could hit the market within a year, according to Levin. Consumer devices such as Touchsense Tablet PCs or PDAs however will take much longer to make their market entry : Not only are special applications required to make use of the feature, but Touchsense also adds significant cost to a device. According to Levin, the additional cost is between $5 for small and high-volume units to about $50 for larger and low-volume screens.

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