2 More Patents: Haptic Feedback and RFID Antenna

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:43:50 -0500

And we thought Apple scoffed at the Blackberry Storm’s haptic feedback. Guess not, because Apple has filed a patent that not only recognizes the limitations of a purely smooth touchscreen (can’t see what you are pressing), but shows haptic display technology as the solution.

The patent describes a grid of *big word alert* piezoelectronic actuators that would be activated on command. Now, if you are like us and don’t spend excessive amounts of time on Wikipedia, you probably don’t know what this means. Essentially, the touchscreen would have different surfaces such that the user would be able to feel buttons, while maintaining the no-button approach that Steve Jobs adores.

This could take the form of playback buttons (next song, previous song, pause), and even a haptic keyboard, which could enable touch typing. The good thing about the haptic feedback is that it would be completely programmable, so it could take different forms in different applications.

In another patent described in the same MacRumors article, Apple details an RFID reader integrated in the touchscreen, with the RFID antenna placed in the touchscreen panel itself. RFID tags, if you aren’t familiar with them, are becoming increasingly prevalent as tracking devices for products, key entry for security systems, and several other mainstream products.

Would you be excited about haptic feedback on your phone, and would you ever use RFID scanning to keep track of your robot army? Let us know in the comments.

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2 More Patents: Haptic Feedback and RFID Antenna