Touch Screen Phones with the Feeling of Keyboard under Process
Posted on March 25, 2008 in Technology by Annie
Latest touch screen phones of company like iPhone are trendy but slower as compared to the QWERTY keypads. With a touch screen keypad the typing speed of the user decreases as well as there is an increase in typing errors. But according to Stephen Brewster and colleagues of University of Glasgow, U.K., this problem can be overcome by using actuators similar to mobile vibrators so as to imitate the feel of a keyboard.
Immersion of San Jose, California made software named “Vibe Tonz” which can make an actuator move in various ways. LG and Samsung touch screen phones use this software to give a simple “haptic” feedback on pressing a button. But this is what Brewster has to say: “The actuators are there, but people aren’t using them in the most effective way.”
Brewster and group are experimenting combination of different Vibe Tonz for creation of highly sophisticated sensations. Single pulse equivalent to 30 millisecond is capable to generate the feel of button been clicked. Whereas half a second long pulse makes user feel that they have drifted to another key. When a user slides finger across a button causing the buzz to be ramped up and down, generates the feeling of round button.
The team compared the users typing accuracy and speed when the haptics was disabled and when connected. They found that the speed and accuracy level when the haptics were connected were equivalent to using a real keyboard. The results of this experiment will be present in front of Computer Human Interaction Conference held in Florence, Italy.
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