A virtual tactile keyboard could hold the key to making the iPhone easier to use. And it may be in development as we speak, just not by Apple.
Eva Hoggan, researcher from the University of Glasgow’s Department of Computing Science, claims the following: “We found that, compared to a standard keyboard, touchscreen keypads were less accurate in terms of text input. Without being able to identify through touch when a key had been selected there was a significant increase in errors made. When in a rush it can be very time consuming to check each character has been entered correctly and is particularly difficult when travelling. Feedback through the finger is more natural and the brain can process it faster than visual feedback. By providing tactile feedback we will bring the iPhone keypad close to the performance of a real physical keyboard.
Apparently, the problem trying to be solved here is one of, not having sensory confirmation when you hit the correct button on the iPhone’s virtual touch keyboard. This issue has been criticized before giving Blackberry users a strong argument to prevent them from making the switch to the iPhone. “I just can’t feel the buttons and I can’t type without looking, let alone type fast.” I friend of mine still proclaims as he avoids switching to Apple’s iPhone.
With this technology, (or additional optional feature?), the iPhone could benefit tremendously. The user experience would be as follows: “As users run their fingers over the keypad a wave of vibration is triggered signifying a smooth rounded button. When the key is selected and released different vibration patterns give the user the feel of a key snapping back into place.”
The Click
“Haptic feedback has been added to the finger down and up events triggered when a keyboard button is clicked. These events have been adapted to create a fingertip-over event which is fired when the finger moves over any button in the interface. When the fingertip-over event is triggered, a 1-beat smooth 70ms high intensity Tacton (2) is presented using the iPhone’s built-in rotational motor. The cue uses an approx. 175Hz sine wave with increasing intensity during the ramp up time and decreasing intensity during the ramp down time to create a smooth rounded feeling button.”
Left hand side shows File-o-Feel interface with T-Bar rows and left-to-right gesture. Right hand side shows two- finger gesture required to scroll through the list.
“As T-Bars have been designed for touch interfaces and these increasingly support multi-touch functionality, the File-o-Feel interface also exploits multi-touch capabilities, allowing users to simultaneously use multiple fingers, rather than just one. File-o-Feel operates in two different modes, selection mode and scrolling mode. Scrolling mode is activated when the user places two fingers on the screen. File-o-Feel allows users to quickly scroll through the list of information using two fingers, whilst ‘feeling’ and interacting with the T-Bars can be accomplished with one finger in selection mode. This technique eliminates the need for traditional scrollbars, whilst continuing to support the traditional requirement for lists longer than the height of the screen, and also preventing problems that can occur with touchscreen lists when users intends to scroll but their touch triggers a selection event instead. In File-o-Feel the user can touch anywhere on the list whilst using two fingers without selecting anything, because ‘feel’ or selection mode is disabled. Then, using one finger, users can slide along the T-Bar of the item they wish to select. Here they will feel another tactile bump to indicate that the item has been selected successfully. Whilst traditional UIs have the concept of focus we deliberately ignore it. For example, if a button is pressed in a traditional interface only that button can receive movement events until the press is released once more. The concept of focus is not used in our interface so that users may start by selecting one item via its T-Bar and then move their finger to another T-Bar, without lifting it off the display.”
File-o-Feel will soon be available for you to try.
“The iPhone’s built-in vibrotactile actuator is shown in the top left hand corner of the above picture. This is turned on when the keyboard buttons are pressed. We have found that the actuator can vibrate at 12 different speeds offering a wide range of tactile sensations,” reports the University of Glasgow.
When the button is released by the finger, a second 1-beat Tacton is presented to confirm that the button has been pressed successfully. This feedback is 50ms with a lower amplitude setting of 6 thus producing a shorter lower intensity haptic click. By adding haptic feedback to both the finger down and finger up events during button clicks, the natural snap ratio of a physical button is reproduced virtually.
“The idea we have developed is very simple to apply because the vibration technology is already included in the iPhone. This technology is also not only restricted to the iPhone but can be applied to a range of other phones and electronic devices,” co-researcher Malcolm Hall added:
For additional information, check out http://iphone-haptics.googlecode.com. via physorg
