Tactile Keyboard Screens at CES (Oh where be Nokia’s Haptikos? :/)

Not surprised Nokia gets mentioned here…

This is not Nokia related directly, but it interested me because Nokia’s research has been working on ways to make flat touchscreens more tactile – the feel that there are buttons actually there even though there’s only a glass screen. There’s some variations on tactile feedback (as seen in several of Nokia’s touch screens) as well as future labs stuff of electro-tactile feedback that can give the illusion of textures under your finger.

Another implementation is to actually have physical buttons that spontaneously appear (Nokia Morph esque?). You might have heard about this before but it’s nice to see it in action at CES. Not from Nokia but nice to see nonetheless.

The video is over at BBC News. Watch the plain tablet and then later see the keyboard emerge. I’m not sure how dynamic the buttons can be (is it only at pre-defined positions? Or can they be anywhere?)

Via Reddit

There’s definitely room for this. A lot of my hardcore BB user friends endure their BlackBerry not for anything else except the always there keyboard letting them text without looking at the screen. Whilst you can try this on a regular touch screen, it’s no where near as easy.

I’m curious to know what these squidgy looking buttons feel like.

Surprised to see more Nokia discussion. So true though. Nokia. They either innovate and don’t bring it out or innovate, bring it out and don’t advertise/make very low quantities.

Category: Nokia