The title says it all. In response to all those people that complained about the iPhone’s on-screen virtual keyboard lacking any tactile feedback, Malcolm Hall and Eve Hoggan from the University of Glasgow have come up with a haptic-feedback solution for the iPhone. It’s strictly a prototype and is more a proof of concept than a commercially viable haptic-feedback method.
Now, this isn’t real haptic, it’s pseudo-haptic. The entire iPhone vibrates to help you “feel” the different keys as you run your finger along the virtual keyboard or press a key. The “click” uses a two-part waveform to give the user the sensation of pressing and releasing the key – a “finger down” and “finger up” vibration. We’d rather that the device’s haptic vibration was localized to the actual position of the key-press (now that would be real haptic feedback), but baby-steps are better than no steps.
The haptic-feedback solution for the iPhone is buggy and unreliable, it’s a prototype after all. So, don’t expect any commercial launch. It’s just nice to know that people are working on this sort of thing.