One of the big problems with touchscreens is the lack of physical feedback compared to pushing buttons. Nokia’s haptikos tactile touchscreen system could change all that by adding a layer than can be made dynamically bumpy, so it feels more like pressing real keys and less like just swiping a smooth surface.

Many touchscreen phones currently use haptic technology that makes the phone vibrate slightly when a button is pressed. While this provides some level of feedback, haptikos is much more advanced. According to the patent application, the aim of haptikos is to create a surface that feels rough and can be dynamically controlled. The system uses what’s referred to as “voltage controllable protuberances”, which can be raised or lowered on the surface of the touchscreen.

By placing these in a grid over the screen it’s possible to control which ones are raised and create the illusion of tactile feedback – which is pretty cool. Luckily the layer is transparent, so you can still see the screen underneath.

Haptikos is only at the prototype stage at the moment, but lets hope Nokia gets its skates on and combines it with S60 Touch UI to create a killer touchscreen phone.

(via Unwired View)