Apple Patents Multi-haptic Interface for Touch Devices

The system would allow users to essentially feel the screen as they manipulate objects on it. One example included in the application has a user pinching to zoom in on a map of California. The haptic feedback would follow their fingers as they pulled apart on the device. In this example, the haptic feedback would be less when the fingers are closer together, and greater as the fingers move apart. The haptic feedback could also be used to let users know when a certain boundary is being approached. For example, the feedback could become greater if a user is zoomed in as far as they can go, letting the user know that they can not zoom in any farther. The application notes that the zoom gesture method could be particularly beneficial in publishing, photo and drawing programs.

via AppleInsider | Apple investigating multi-haptic feedback for multi-touch devices.

Apple files a lot of patents, so who knows if this is going to make it into a product, but ever since the iPhone came out I hoped this would be the next big advance.

If this technology can be executed on the iPad, it would be a revolutionary and completely amazing user interface.

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