Hacker News Reader

Comment by PaulKeeble | Hacker News Reader

There has been a number of attempts at making screens create tactile bumps and provide direct feedback which haven't yet worked which might improve physical interaction somewhat so we can get buttons and switches and knobs in a programmable way that isn't hardware specific to the task but we aren't there yet.

View on HN

Having no tactile interaction on computers saddens me very much. A couple decades ago, a colleague and I did a mind experiment on pixel-level tactile interfaces and imagining all the affordances that would provide - including of course for those that are sight challenged. All humans have a very very strong tactile aspect to their neurophysiology. Cortical Man shows that clearly.

It would be sad if in 10,000 years we evolved to lose our tactile senses.

I'll also add the buttons and switches and knobs are not all that tactile. They are a modern human creation.

This, by the way, is partly why MacBook trackpads are so good - they have excellent haptic feedback for clicking that is superior to most (all?) physical trackpads.

> buttons and switches and knobs are not all that tactile

But they are, though. You can touch them without pressing, and, once you get used to them, they have different textures.

Some may have different textures, but most unfortunately are just smooth plastic.

Even smooth plastic acquires texture with continued use, since the wear patterns are different.

Back in the ball-mouse days I had this vague notion of including some kind of togglable magnetic resistance on the mouse rollers, to make physical tactile ridges and divisions in the user interface. Probably completely impractical, but it would open up some interesting possibilities.

It seems like it ought to be possible to add tactile feedback to a modern mouse with gyros that could make certain directions hard to move in but the weight likely isn't worth it with mice trying to get ever lighter.

I quite like force feedback generally, I have a ffb steering wheel from fanatec and a joystick from moza.there is definitely a market for this sort of thing and a mouse that had feedback if only vibration might be interesting. Usually more complex signals are where the value comes in, having a spring/rubber push back on pedals is better than nothing but vibration at multiple frequencies adds a lot and then actual motorised pedal feedback is a whole other level again.

It would be cool to have the mouse button upon which my index finger rests be a tactile version of the 32x32 grid around the cursor. But I've no idea how you would add 1000 tactile points into that small space.

Apple's Force Touch aka 3D Touch

Reply on news.ycombinator.com