Tactile Touch Screens to Be the Next Add Up to Mobile Phones

Immersion, a developer of tactile or haptic technologies, has announced that it plans to license its new force-feedback technology to handset makers, to make virtual buttons on cell-phone screens.

Sony's PlayStation 2 or Microsoft's XBox users are already familiar with the tactile reactions they feel in joysticks and steering wheels on their gaming consoles. Now this technology is being worked out to move to mobile devices.

A haptic screen is built into a personal digital assistant or smart phone and doesn't actually flex against a user's finger, but a small electric motor behind it delivers a small tap. Combined with an audible "click" feature used in platforms like automated teller machines, the overall effect helps mimic a mechanical button on a digital screen.

Immersion also plans to license the technology to manufacturers of smart phones and PDAs who are in process to improve the utility of their touch screens, said Mark Belinsky, vice president of market strategy for the San Jose, California.

However, the new development is quite similar to the firm's VibeTonz System that the cell-phone vendors are already using to synchronize ring tones and video games with tactile vibrations.

Samsung is using VibeTonz in its SCH-a930 mobile phone which allows the users to identify callers without taking a muted phone out of their pockets as the phone vibrates differently for each assigned ring tone.

Samsung has also been using haptic technology to add a sensory dimension to video games. Game makers including Punch Entertainment, SkyZone Entertainment, and Sonic Branding Solutions have signed agreements with Immersion to use VibeTonz technology.

According to Avi Greengart, Principal analyst for mobile devices with Current Analysis, vibrating songs and games are decent gimmicks for selling phones to kids, but the real payoff will come when vendors use haptic technology in their touch screens.

"If you're just trying to make a phone that's more exciting for young people, maybe that's exciting or maybe not," he said. "But when it comes to giving force feedback to a handset, this gives you the physical sensation that you just pushed a button, and that's compelling."

In todays world, all handsets are getting thinner and have begun to host richer media; their designs feature "all screen and no buttons," Greengart said. So he says, the challenge for vendors is how to let users know which button to press, and which button they have just pressed. Tactile feedback is the best answer yet.

Immersion has licensed similar technology for years to manufacturers of video game consoles, medical training simulators, and automotive dashboard manufacturers. The company is locked in a trademark infringement lawsuit with Sony, which allegedly uses Immersion's technology in the PlayStation series.