Senseg is one of several companies that have been working on bringing haptic feedback to touch screens. Haptic feedback makes it possible for you to feel a textured surface when you touch a screen, rather than a smooth surface. Some primitive systems have provided some feedback by triggering a device’s vibration capability when a finger is located at a specific place on the screen, but the Senseg technology uses variable electrostatic force on the surface of the screen to create the sensation of different textures. This article describes one person’s experience with using a demonstration of the technology earlier this year. This type of haptic feedback is not intense enough to produce refreshable Braille in a style that would be expected from a dedicated Braille display, but would certainly revolutionize the way that people that are blind access maps, charts, and other simple graphics that are not easily expressed with speech.
You cannot currently purchase any tablets or phones that offer Senseg’s technology, but the technology is far beyond the prototype stage. Starting now, software developers can purchase a developer kit, consisting of a specially modified Google Nexus 7 tablet and software, and begin experimenting with the creation of apps to make use of this new way of feeling a screen. Availability on commercial devices is expected with-in 1-2 years.
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