6 ms·

Friction simulation on touchscreen

61 points by cr4zy 15y ago

po 15y ago
Oddly enough, I think I know exactly what this feels like because I have felt something like this on a laptop that was plugged into an ungrounded outlet. The metal surface felt like it had ridges as I dragged my finger across the surface... 60hz ridges. When my finger wasn't moving if felt no different. When I unplugged it, the sensation went away.
- noonespecial 15y ago
  I've noticed that a few times myself. Most noteably badly grounded proaudio gear made the mics feel "rough" when plugged in. Its a well known warning sign that something's amiss and could become dangerous.(1) I went so far as to make a little medium voltage amplifier and hook it up to my signal generator so I could try various frequencies and powers. Lots of strange and wonderful textures emerged but it always felt a bit tingly, like I was getting a mild shock. Hopefully they've figured out how to keep this from happening while still keeping the good part. (1) Every once in a great while someone is hurt or killed touching a microphone connected to a malfunctioning mixer/amplifier.
- robinduckett 15y ago
  My dad's XPS M1330 does this. I actually quite like the feeling of mild electrocution. I doubt many other people do though.
- lucian1900 15y ago
  My Macbook Pro used to do this, it was odd. The annoying part was that my hand hurt after using it for a few hours.
maeon3 15y ago
It uses Coulomb's law, a principle of attraction between electrical charges: http://senseg.com/technology/senseg-technology http://senseg.com/technology/senseg-technology Physics behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- tocomment 15y ago
  I still don't understand. How does running a current through an electrode produce an attractive force to a finger? The finger isn't going to have positively charged particles in it.
  - icegreentea 15y ago
    A net neutral finger is still composed of negative and positive particles. Remember that the negatively charged particle (electrons) are relatively mobile. If you apply an external electrostatic gradient across a region, you end up with those electrons moving.
    - tocomment 15y ago
      So is this a repulsive or attractive force? Can you control that?
      - a-priori 15y ago
        Attractive only. If I remember my electrostatics, the rationale is that if the surface becomes positively charged, the positive charges in your finger will move away from the surface, leaving only the negative charges near the surface. Those particles will be attracted to the screen. If you reverse the charge so the surface is negatively charged, then the negative charges in your finger will be repulsed, leaving positive charges which will be attracted to the screen. Either way, your finger gets attracted to the screen.
        tocomment 15y ago
        This is amazing. I've never heard of this before. I can think of millions of potential applications; make car tires stick to the road when cornering, replace seatbelts with a electric car seat, glasses that stick to your face, a phone that sticks to your ear, shoes without laces. I'm sure I could come up with a lot more ideas too.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Roritharr 15y ago
They are carefully not mentioning battery consumption... i'd expect it to be high for a system that remodulates the electrical charge on its surface periodically.
danmaz74 15y ago
This would be not just cool, but really useful in terms of usability. I'm surprised there are so few upvotes...
shimfish 15y ago
Any idea if this works with more than one finger at a time?
cpr 15y ago
If this really works with reasonably low power, you can bet the big guys are lining up for a bidding war. This is the kind of feature which an Apple or a Samsung would want to have exclusively, at least for a while. E.g., Apple seems to have bought all the consumer electronics output of the metal-moldable-like-plastic company (forget the name) a while back, though we haven't seen the results publicly yet.
bigfoot 15y ago
For stationary setups, this is for the first time a real win for touchscreens in comparison to a conventional screen plus a pointing device (mouse, trackball, you name it). I'm really curious what they'll make out of this.
Cyndre 15y ago
I would love to have a touchscreen keyboard with this functionality in it. This is the biggest thing missing from touch screens presently. Very excited to see what comes from it.

61 points by cr4zy 15y ago

po 15y ago

Oddly enough, I think I know exactly what this feels like because I have felt something like this on a laptop that was plugged into an ungrounded outlet. The metal surface felt like it had ridges as I dragged my finger across the surface... 60hz ridges. When my finger wasn't moving if felt no different. When I unplugged it, the sensation went away.

noonespecial 15y ago
I've noticed that a few times myself. Most noteably badly grounded proaudio gear made the mics feel "rough" when plugged in. Its a well known warning sign that something's amiss and could become dangerous.(1) I went so far as to make a little medium voltage amplifier and hook it up to my signal generator so I could try various frequencies and powers. Lots of strange and wonderful textures emerged but it always felt a bit tingly, like I was getting a mild shock. Hopefully they've figured out how to keep this from happening while still keeping the good part. (1) Every once in a great while someone is hurt or killed touching a microphone connected to a malfunctioning mixer/amplifier.
robinduckett 15y ago
My dad's XPS M1330 does this. I actually quite like the feeling of mild electrocution. I doubt many other people do though.
lucian1900 15y ago
My Macbook Pro used to do this, it was odd. The annoying part was that my hand hurt after using it for a few hours.

maeon3 15y ago

It uses Coulomb's law, a principle of attraction between electrical charges: http://senseg.com/technology/senseg-technology http://senseg.com/technology/senseg-technology Physics behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
tocomment 15y ago
I still don't understand. How does running a current through an electrode produce an attractive force to a finger? The finger isn't going to have positively charged particles in it.
- icegreentea 15y ago
  A net neutral finger is still composed of negative and positive particles. Remember that the negatively charged particle (electrons) are relatively mobile. If you apply an external electrostatic gradient across a region, you end up with those electrons moving.
  - tocomment 15y ago
    So is this a repulsive or attractive force? Can you control that?
    - a-priori 15y ago
      Attractive only. If I remember my electrostatics, the rationale is that if the surface becomes positively charged, the positive charges in your finger will move away from the surface, leaving only the negative charges near the surface. Those particles will be attracted to the screen. If you reverse the charge so the surface is negatively charged, then the negative charges in your finger will be repulsed, leaving positive charges which will be attracted to the screen. Either way, your finger gets attracted to the screen.
      - tocomment 15y ago
        This is amazing. I've never heard of this before. I can think of millions of potential applications; make car tires stick to the road when cornering, replace seatbelts with a electric car seat, glasses that stick to your face, a phone that sticks to your ear, shoes without laces. I'm sure I could come up with a lot more ideas too.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

Roritharr 15y ago

They are carefully not mentioning battery consumption... i'd expect it to be high for a system that remodulates the electrical charge on its surface periodically.

danmaz74 15y ago

This would be not just cool, but really useful in terms of usability. I'm surprised there are so few upvotes...

shimfish 15y ago

Any idea if this works with more than one finger at a time?

cpr 15y ago

If this really works with reasonably low power, you can bet the big guys are lining up for a bidding war. This is the kind of feature which an Apple or a Samsung would want to have exclusively, at least for a while. E.g., Apple seems to have bought all the consumer electronics output of the metal-moldable-like-plastic company (forget the name) a while back, though we haven't seen the results publicly yet.

bigfoot 15y ago

For stationary setups, this is for the first time a real win for touchscreens in comparison to a conventional screen plus a pointing device (mouse, trackball, you name it). I'm really curious what they'll make out of this.

Cyndre 15y ago

I would love to have a touchscreen keyboard with this functionality in it. This is the biggest thing missing from touch screens presently. Very excited to see what comes from it.