This article was taken from the January 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
There's not much touch in a touchscreen: you swipe or tap the glass or plastic, but the feel of a button isn't there. Yet. "It's a human instinct to feel, and the touchscreen is lacking that," says Ville Mäkinen, CEO of Senseg, a Finnish startup that creates haptic screens. Its technology sparks opposing charges between screen and finger, pulling the digit towards the screen. By modulating that force, Senseg can replicate, albeit faintly for now, the sensation of touching different surfaces and materials.
Progress is being made elsewhere, too; Chris Harrison, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, has demonstrated a virtual keyboard that uses air to raise keys, and Silicon-Valley startup Tactus has developed a screen that lifts keys by concentrating a fluid sandwiched within the smartphone screen.
Oh, and Microsoft and Disney have also joined the race to consign the keyboard to history. It's within touching distance.
Explore more: Big Ideas For 2012
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
