Product category:
Touchscreens and Touch Sensors
News Release from: Immersion Corp | Subject: TouchSense System
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 06 November 2006
Tactile feedback overcomes touchscreen
resistance
Immersion Corp is now shipping its TouchSense System consisting of actuators, control boards, and software development kit (SDK).
Immersion Corp is now shipping its TouchSense System consisting of actuators, control boards, and software development kit (SDK) The TouchSense System supplies tactile feedback for a touchscreen user interface, making on-screen buttons feel like they press and release
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 25 Oct 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Earlier this week Immersion Corporation released its TouchSense technology for touchscreens at the SID Symposium.
With the TouchSense System, traditionally passive touch interfaces "come alive" to provide a greater connection with the user.
Benefits can include increased efficiency, understanding, and user satisfaction for a broad range of consumer, commercial, industrial, and medical applications.
"It is important that device manufacturers offer the maximum possible amount of sensory feedback for their input devices, as users often can't confirm their input selection and become frustrated", says Jack Gold, President of J Gold Associates.
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"In many cases existing touch displays offer only audio feedback which is useless in the often noisy environments in which touchscreens are used".
"Tactile feedback will add a substantially improved user experience with more surety of confirming each touch point selection regardless of the surrounding environment".
The TouchSense System can help make touchscreens a more acceptable choice where the lack of tactile feedback has been a barrier to their adoption.
In these cases, TouchSense feedback can be used to create the desired mechanical feel while bringing the flexibility of configurable software interfaces.
Synchronising touch feedback with sound and graphics can supply a fresh new dimension to current touchscreen systems.
The heightened interactivity gives users a greater sense of control and emulates the tactile qualities they like about mechanical controls, but that have been missing in purely digital systems.
Further, the latency problem, where users are left wondering if their selection was accepted by the system, can be solved with fast, affirming tactile responses.
"Our ready-to-integrate TouchSense System delivers user benefits that can translate into business benefits", states Michael D Levin, Immersion Vice President and General Manager, Touch Interface Products.
"These include unmistakable confirmation that can lead to faster and more accurate transactions, improved interactivity that can create a more engaging and friendlier user experience, and powerful differentiation that reflects a quality brand".
"TouchSense tactile feedback may also improve user accuracy and speed and increase confidence in performing tasks, especially in distracting environments, such as vehicles and manufacturing and medical environments".
Immersion first implemented its TouchSense force feedback technology in 1996 in gaming system peripherals from Logitech and others.
It has since been incorporated into numerous computer and video console systems, including the Microsoft Sidewinder products and Xbox System; medical training systems used by hospitals and medical schools worldwide; interior controls in cars from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen; and in mobile phones from Samsung.
TouchSense technology for touchscreens is Immersion's latest innovation.
When the user touches the screen, a signal is sent to the touchscreen controller, which sends the precise location where contact was made to the host application.
The application commands the TouchSense control board to play a predefined tactile effect through the actuators.
TouchSense effects vary in frequency, magnitude, duration, and waveshape, resulting in a wide range of clearly distinguishable and intuitive cues that can guide users, including those with visual or hearing disabilities.
Patented, proprietary TouchSense components can be used with most touchscreen sensing technologies.
The components are RoHS-compliant.
TouchSense A100 and A300 actuators for 5 to 23in touchscreens are designed to provide high acceleration with very small displacements.
Immersion's Integration Guide outlines several mounting configurations to accommodate a range of touchscreen packaging requirements.
TouchSense serial or USB control boards contain a highly integrated microprocessor and power amplifier.
The controllers' proprietary algorithms drive the actuators to produce a wide variety of touch effects stored in a preloaded library.
Custom effects may also be downloaded.
An optional USB-hub supplies a convenient way to connect up to three additional components, such as the touchscreen controller, card scanner, or other devices.
The TouchSense SDK enables integrators to program tactile effects into touchscreen applications.
Immersion provides options to help make programming fast and easy including a Windows ActiveX control, a cross-platform API in source code form, and support for custom interfaces.
The SDK allows designers to focus on choosing the best tactile effect for the application rather than on the mechanics of programming.
Immersion offers an integration kit, including TouchSense components and detailed guidelines, to support efficient integration into production-ready designs.
A touch monitor demonstration unit with sample applications allows out-of-the-box evaluations of the TouchSense System.
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