More On Mobile Devices - March 19th 2007

THE SCIENCE OF HAPTICS

For those of us whose eyesight is fading as the years progress or for those who have always had vision problems, the advent of small screen mobile devices is viewed with some perplexity. Local phone companies here are pushing features such as being able to watch movies on a phone. This is something I can’t imagine doing under any circumstances, even if my short range vision was perfect. As to watching hockey on a small screen, forget it. I sometimes have trouble following the puck on a 42” screen so what’s the point of trying to watch it on a 2”?

I can see what’s on a small screen when wearing reading glasses but I don’t wear glasses whilst outdoors since my distance vision is almost as good as it’s always been. Consequently, I have developed a strategy for using my mobile phone that relies on pressing buttons in a particular sequence. I don’t need to look at the keyboard or screen to call home (press right, 4, 4, down, green) so I’m probably safer than most using the phone whilst driving. However, when something goes wrong with my button pressing sequence, because the phone is slightly out of place in my hand, I can make some interesting calls! This happens because I get little feedback from the phone until someone answers at the other end.

Using an iPhone with its touch sensitive screen and little in the way of physical buttons would be much harder as it would be very difficult to find the right place to touch the screen without looking closely. Yet the iPhone is signaling the way forward for mobile devices. It doesn’t make much sense to use actual buttons for a keyboard as they take up so much space and are used infrequently. The Blackberry may be a reasonable compromise for today’s technology but its days are surely numbered.

The science of haptics could soon come to our aid. Haptics is the science of touch and is being developed in part to provide feedback from mobile devices. Haptics isn’t new of course as it led to the development of Braille in the 1820’s, not to mention vibrating phones. It has recently been discovered that simply stretching the skin on the fingertips in a particular way can make a flat surface feel like a sharp edge. These skin stretching devices can’t yet be built into a screen but they can provide context sensitive icons next to a screen that you can feel before selecting them. This will be a huge step forward in the use of the newer devices.

Haptics may even have an application for small screen TV watchers. Tactile feedback on puck position may actually make it feasible to watch a hockey game on the move. Maybe one day, the “feelies” will actually become a reality and you will be able to enjoy the physical sensation of flying with Superman.