

TeslaTouch - tactile feedback from touchscreen surface - melvinram
http://www.teslatouch.com/media.html

======
cing
Seems useful for the vision impaired but... not looking forward to hiring
professional movers to drag my 100gb folder to the trash.

~~~
ptrf
I know it's a joke but it raises a good question.

As I understand it, the "friction" induced in your finger is purely a
sensation. I mean how much force can it actually apply to your finger?

Also, the actual nature of the surface isn't altered - I wonder if you have
two sensations at once?

Personally, I've been waiting for this for a long time... touch-typing on a
screen (as it is common today, iphones and androids being ubiquitous) sucks,
as you mistype regularly, even as you look at your screen.

------
Groxx
An interesting idea, and probably the nigh-holy-grail to blind users... but I
keep thinking that the biggest use of this, or at least the _first_ big use,
will be for porn.

~~~
riffraff
probably not.

I have read my fair share of porn magazines and I am pretty sure they did not
have pages with hairy inserts or skin-like spots, even if that would have been
trivial to do.

I've seen that a lot in children books though (touch-feel inserts, not porn)
and I guess that would be an amazing use of this technology.

------
unwind
From the video, it seems the entire screen has the same touch simulation, it
doesn't say anything about being able to address "touch pixels" (tixels?
taxels? tacxels?).

So, I guess it's able to switch the simulation very quickly, to implement the
various demos they show where the tactile feedback is different for different
parts of the screen.

That seems to imply that this won't be compatible with The Other Touchscreen
development, i.e. multitouch.

Does anyone know?

~~~
Geee
There's this video about Senseg who is the leader in this technology. He
actually talks about tixels:

[http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/28/senseg-amazing-
haptic-t...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/28/senseg-amazing-haptic-
technology-that-could-come-to-a-device-near-you/)

------
beambot
This is another example of an electrotactile (or electrovibration) display. If
you'd like to read more, I did a writeup about a competitor called "Senseg"
from Toshiba a while back:
[http://www.hizook.com/blog/2010/08/11/electrotactile-
arrays-...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2010/08/11/electrotactile-arrays-
texture-and-pressure-feedback-during-robotic-teleoperation)

~~~
beambot
Incidentally, they function by stimulating nerve endings -- either through
electrical pulses (electrotactile) or vibrations (vibrotactile). Much like the
Senseg device I spoke of, the linked device is probably a variant of
vibrotactile where the vibrations are generated by electrostatic forces (think
"capacitor forces") via transparent electrodes on the front of the display.

------
natch
It didn't say anything about how much power this draws. Any EE majors care to
comment on whether this could be a reality on battery powered consumer
devices?

~~~
riffraff
"as little as 8 Volts to generate tactile sensations" from
<http://www.teslatouch.com/technology.html>

~~~
shard
Although in their white paper, they write that it is further amplified up to
120Vpp.

It shouldn't use much power though, they note that the panel is only supplied
with 0.5mA max, lower than many LED currents. They also say that it's the same
amount of current used for conventional capacitive touch panels.

Finally, the paper describes the sensations produced. Users have described
various settings as feeling sticky or waxy, feeling akin to touching a
motorcycle handle or rubber, or running a finger through a viscous fluid.

------
samratjp
Aw man, I highly anticipated upon clicking to see the Tesla Model S Sedan's
glorious 17" touchscreen display. Ironically enough, this is actually an
useful thing for the Model S, for the darn thing aims to replace all knobs and
whistles with a touch screen.

------
eande
Not a single statement on their website on IP. Touch screens in general is a
patent mine field and it would be interesting to understand how TeslaTouch's
product can differentiate or secure themselves

~~~
raphman
TeslaTouch uses an effect that has been known since at least 1954 [1] and has
been subject of some research so far. This does not mean that noone has IP on
an implementation, though.

[1] Mallinckrodt, E., A. Hughes, and W. Sleator, Perception by the Skin of
Electrically Induced Vibrations. Science, 1953. 118(3062): pp. 277-278. (from
the academic paper on TeslaTouch)

------
StavrosK
Oh god, is it that horrible shocking sensation you get when stroking the metal
casings of amplifiers and other home equipment? As if you get a million small
shocks? I hate that...

------
jasonkester
Irony. Their site is not usable on mobile devices. On my iPad I see a picture
of carpet squares.

------
anthonycerra
Steve Jobs - "iPhone 7 is amazing. We've included a revolutionary feature we
call 'home row' - it's awesome."

