Haptic

In the real world, we rely on our sense of touch to do everyday tasks such as dialing a touch-tone phone, finding first gear in a manual transmission car, or playing a musical instrument like a guitar or a piano which all heavily rely on the tactile and kinesthetic cues we receive. Tactile cues are sensations like textures, vibrations, and bumps whereas kinesthetic cues are contours and shapes and sensations like the weight of a stone, the resistance of stirring molasses, or the impact of hitting a tennis racquet's sweet spot. These cues help give direction and guide our movements.

Brief history:

Early 20th century – Originated from the Greek “haptesthai”, the term “Haptic (= Tactile + Kinesthetic)” began to be used in Psychology

1950s – 1990s – Force-feedback for Teleoperation in Robotics

1990s – 1995s – Break-through in Haptics: PHANToM

1995s - Present – World-wide active research efforts, all in perception, devices, and rendering algorithms.

Haptics is the science and physiology of the sense of touch. There is a large section of the brain called the primary sensory cortex that is responsible for processing all the rich information flowing in from mechanoreceptors in your fingers, your face, and all over your body. These mechanoreceptors have names like Pacinian and Meissner's corpuscles and Merkel's disks. They are what allow you to feel things like touch, pressure, stretching, and motion.

So why is it that when you sit down in front of a computer, cell phone, PDA, or any digital interface, you are presented solely with visual feedback, and maybe a little auditory feedback? Your primary sensory cortex, the part of your brain responsible for your wonderful, sophisticated sense of touch, may as well go into hibernation since information is presented almost exclusively in text, pictures, and color, but not in textures, shapes, and touch.

Some current application areas are:

desktop GUI augmentation
medical robotics
physical rehabilitation
entertainment like virtual reality arcades and home-based gaming systems
embedded consumer electronics
telerobotics and virtual environments
training and education
CAD tools
creative & expressive tools

There are different qualities of touch:

bidirectionality: encompasses intention, manipulation, gesture and perception
social loading: intentional, socially invasive and committing
gesture and expression: convey functional and emotional signals through touching
multi-parametered: force, pressure, moisture, temperature, texture…
resolution and associability: precise control & discrimination, poor absolute resolution

Samsung Anycall Haptic

Samsung Anycall Haptic is equipped with sensitive UI that stimulates the sense of sight, hearing and touch making it almost like a living thing. To elucidate, when you use your finger to raise the volume dial, the 'tick,tick,tick' sound and vibration makes you feel like you are using a real volume dial. You can even change the UI according to your personal tastes with the on-handset graphic user interfaces. You can create your own menu on the desktop through Widget.