Nokia patented their touchscreen solution, previously announced under the name Haptikos, which seems as a very exciting solution due primarily to the realistic feedback it provides. The flaw of most touchscreen devices is that the virtual keys on the screen have no palpable edges as on the uniform glass surface there is no chance to make such things so one has to pay much more attention when entering data. Recently Sony patented their own solution which makes the screen's surface a bit depressable, or not depressable and thus making key edges palpable. Nokia's solution, however, is based on a completely different principle: it simulates the sensation of tapping different surfaces with a very simple trick. There are special layers placed under and above the soft display, which, when controlled properly, get moved one towards the other, thus increasing the pressure of the transparent liquid inside the display, which then gets embossed.
The height of these lumps can be completely customized, which means a different roughness and surface friction. Although the roughness of the whole surface changes at the same time, this completely depends on where the screen is touched. Thus the background, images and virtual keys can be felt with a different roughness, so a more realistic feeling exists than in the case of vibrating displays. The patent also states that the display can be used for even measuring pressure strength, so link selection is done only if the display is pressed strong enough. In case press strength cannot be measured, menu activation is done by double-clicking or by touching the menu items for a certain amount of time.
Translated by Szaszati
