Apple’s existing Force Touch mechanism
Update: Patently Apple notes that this patent has now been granted (19th April 2016).
Apple patent application published today shows that the Force Touch trackpad used in the 12-inch MacBook and latest 13-inch MacBook Pro could get more sophisticated in future versions. The patent describes how a mix of vibration and temperature could fool your finger into ‘feeling’ different surfaces, such as metal and wood.
For example, a glass surface may be controlled to have the temperature of a relatively cooler metal material and/or a relatively warmer wood material […]
In some cases, the temperature may be varied over time, such as in response to one or more touches detected using one or more touch sensors. For example, a metal material may increase in temperature while touched in response to heat from a user’s finger.
The patent describes how vibrations could be used to simulate a textured surface, such as the grain of a wooden surface …
From the description in the patent, the vibration would appear to use a similar taptic engine to the existing Force Touch trackpad, but allowing horizontal as well as vertical movement. A Peltier device or similar would be used to create temperature differences. A Peltier device is a solid-state heat pump that can transfer heat from one side of the device to the other depending on the direction of the current, allowing both heating and cooling effects.
The extremely realistic feel of the existing Force Touch trackpad’s fake click makes it easier to imagine how Apple might be able to pull off this more sophisticated tactile illusion. It would, though, be a little ironic for Apple to work so hard to remove visual skeuomorphism, such as fake leather surfaces, only to potentially reintroduce it in tactile form!
KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo recently claimed that while the next-generation iPhones will feature pressure-sensitive Force Touch technology, it will work differently to the systems seen in the MacBook and Apple Watch. The illustrations in this patent application show only a MacBook trackpad.
Via AI
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To be honest, I’d just be happy with some kind of haptic response in a keyboard.
Old style mechanical key-switches did for free because of mechanical levers and springs. But compact keyboards don’t have the same mechanisms and feel dead as a result.
Imagine a low profile keyboard, using this technology to generate a feel-able click for every successful key press!
I know what you mean. I do like Apple’s keyboards, but still sometimes miss the feel (and sound!) of the clunky old IBM one I used years ago.
Just imagine a totally flat keyboard with a per-key taptic engine, eliminating yet another mechanical part. Only problem would be blindly finding keys based on their recessed form factor as they’re in current keyboards.
Keys and buttons are the big ones everything else would just be a nice bonus
Who exactly is this for? I know I’ve never been on a laptop and thought only if I could just fool my fingers into the sensation of metal and wood while I’m on here the Internet would be so much better!
Agreed. I’m trying hard to figure out a use case for this. Maybe it’s because I just woke up, but I’m having a hard time.
You have to have imagination and creativity to understand it. Your first mistake is thinking this would be just for a laptop……… you have to be kidding? Just one example would be physically feeling the material texture of clothing you’re shopping for online, like on Amazon for example. Now, in the future there could be clothes with this built into them, so you could bring in touch sensitivity to movies or games. If it’s breezy in a movie you could feel this while watching it, etc. in a horror video game you could feel a hand grab your shoulder..the possibilities are simply incredible. In the more distant future there will be holographic images projected where you’ll feel the object in 3D floating in the air in front of you…
Yeah, cause apple has a long history of embracing gimmicky fx.
accessibility maybe? I wonder if it could be granular enough that a visually impaired person could feel the edges of UI. Maybe not as silly as replicating real world textures, but different kinds of UI could have different feels. Move the mouse over empty white and smooth and cool. Move the mouse over a toolbar and it could be textured differently so you know you can interact with it.
I don’t know. It sounds like there could be potential.
Your comment about skeuomorphism in regards to this IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. It’s not even a definition for skeuomorphism. Being able to feel different textures like this would be insanely amazing, and groundbreaking. Seeing a calendar on your phone that graphically exactly imitates a calendar in real life, is tacky, lazy, design.
Can you imagine being able to feel the weighty texture of parchment while flipping through a novel in iBooks?