The new device can provide a series of responsive sensations

Aug 7, 2014 18:27 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s Research unit has created a touchscreen that can provide a wide array of responsive sensations whenever you touch it by simulating the muscles of the skin on your finger.

If you can’t figure out its purpose until now, hear this: whenever you’re touching the screen, the device creates a clicking sensation through your finger, thus making you feel just like you’re typing on a real keyboard. And that’s not all. When dragging a folder, you can actually feel the weight of the folders depending on the number of items that are stored in it.

First and foremost, how is this possible?

As Daily Mail is reporting, everything comes down to sensations that are based on stimulating the skin and the muscles. This helps people not only feel more natural when using a touchscreen, but also type faster and thus achieve better productivity stats, a Microsoft researcher from Beijing explained.

The prototype, which is demoed by Microsoft researcher Hong Tan and created with the help of experts from Purdue University, is based on a very complex system employing electronic engineering and mechanics. One of these systems uses a special layer introduced just under the glass to bend whenever electric voltage is detected. As a result, the glass bends and produces the sensation of a small click.

“The way we design computers today it would seem that people only use their eyes,” Microsoft researcher Hong Tan said. “Sure, we tap on our device screens, slide our fingertips across the glass, and type on on-screen keyboards.”

“With sight alone, most people are perfectly fine interacting with computing devices today, but how much more efficiently, how much more enjoyably, can we interact with computers? How much more accessible can we make them? We won’t know until this becomes taken for granted.”

A similar project was also demonstrated in July this year by Microsoft engineer Michel Pahud. This time, the 3D touchscreen was offering tactile feedback to users, thus helping them determine the difference between the objects they touch based on a series of sensations offered through the display.

Again, users could feel the weight of the objects they tried to drag across the screen, the researcher explained, so more force to push was required when trying to move a stone than a sponge block.

As you can imagine, this kind of technologies are still in their early days, but there’s no doubt that when they’re advanced enough to enter production, they’ll definitely change our world once and forever.