Do you miss the feeling of pressing physical buttons when you touch icons or letters on a smartphone touchscreen? Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI is working on a display that recreates exactly that “clicking sensation” by combining vibration with a pressure sensor.
The haptic display, which is manufactured by Kyocera, is still in prototype mode. Apparently, KDDI currently aims at developing a thinner multi-touch version before offering the screen to manufacturers of cell phones.
What’s interesting is that the company says there are three different sensations the display can recreate, two for clicking on numbers or letters and one for pushing icons (for example, the screen can recreate the sensation of pushing soft buttons if the user prefers it that way).
This video (in English, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo) provides more insight: