Tactile Soft Keys Communicate to Your Tactile Perception
A satisfactory "click" response seems to be eluding the touchscreen-dominated world, and researchers at the Interactive Display Lab at the University of Illinois may have found a solution. Craig Shultz and his team have developed a novel approach toprovide tactile feedback using commonly available components, which they have dubbed as hapticoil.
At the heart of hapticoil lies a microspeaker. While a small tweeter may not be powerful enough to deliver haptic feedback on its own, the team has ingeniously ingeniously coupled the speaker hydraulically to a silicone membrane. This coupling allows the speaker to effectively dispense haptic feedback, especially when water is introduced to absorb finger pressure. The silicone membrane can accommodate a variety of shapes for the haptic "soft button."
Apart from the advanced electronics that enable the speaker coil to function as both a button and an actuator (by measuring changes in inductance when pressure is applied, while driving the speaker as normal), there's little here that a DIY hobbyist wouldn't be able to replicate. The components include a microspeaker, a 3D-printed enclosure, and a silicone membrane that serves as the soft button face. The researchersgenerously provide a circuit diagram in figure eight of their paper for those interested in replicating the electronics.
The hapticoil has been demonstrated in various applications, such as a finger-mounted version for enhancing user experience in virtual reality. The technology was also showcased on a pen stylus and a remote control.
Previous work by Craig Shultz has delved into hydraulic haptics. This microspeaker technique appears to be more accessible to the hacker community than previous projects, such as an electroosmotic screen and a glove that employed a similar trick.
With the growing popularity of haptic feedback in devices, innovations like the hapticoil could pave the way for richer user experiences in the digital age.
In this digitally inclined era, the hapticoil technology, developed by Craig Shultz and his team, could revolutionize the user experience by providing tactile feedback on common gadgets like smartphones and other electronics, thanks to the employment of hapticoil's unique microspeaker and silicone membrane mechanism. This innovation, which can be replicated by a DIY hobbyist using easily accessible components, has applications ranging from virtual reality accessories to utility items such as pen styluses and remote controls.
