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Comment by layer8 | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think each dome is individually addressable. The general problem with that is the huge amount of traces (wires) you need to route for individual control. And if all domes emit the same vibrations, you just get a vibrating glove, not fine-grained haptics.

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it's a phasearray, therefore you are bound to have some x/y control. also, look at your screen and tell me more about lots of traces.

Screen pixels store their state and are updated in sequence, not simultaneously (hence the “jelly scroll” effect), and only at low-for-sound frequencies (60-240 Hz nowadays).

ever touched a strung guitarstring? the highest string, 5 or 6. fret: 400Hz

im not saying this can just be tailored into haptics AS IS

of course you will need to put some work into this, but having hardware like this opens up many possibilities

if i were you, i wouldnt just dismiss the idea (just because you cant see how to implement it, doesnt mean noone else wont)

I’m not dismissing the idea, I’m saying that the design presented doesn’t seem to bring us that much closer to solving the actual problems with implementing high-resolution haptics. People tend to severely underestimate the difficulties.

yeah, except for tiny electricaly movable surfaces that can vibrate too... the other haptic gloves that already give high fidelity haptics do it with micro pumps and also tiny bubbles...

i would love to have the time and material to experiment with this... but i dont and wont :shrug:

I imagine a static, non-flexible screen that you're not supposed to put any pressure on is a very different problem from a flexible, constantly moving glove which is also used to push buttons, grab stuff, etc.

Better to wrap the solid object (button, controller, steering wheel, whatever) in the haptic material than put it in a glove? We do have flexible conductive materials though.

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