In the US, Kyocera might not be a name that comes up very frequently, and when it does it seems to be for rugged devices aimed at more active users rather than the general public. That being said, it would seem that the company is exploring ideas of bringing haptic feedback onto mobile devices, thanks to a recently discovered patent (via Android Authority).
The patent is dubbed “Haptivity” and basically what it does is it tries to simulate the feeling of pressing on actual keys. Now Android has haptic feedback in which your phone vibrates when you press on its screen. However the vibration is standard regardless of a long or short press, or whether you’re pressing on an app or on a keyboard.
With Kyocera’s patent (as you can see above), that could soon change. How it works is through the use of sensors, it will attempt to stimulate the Pacini nerve in your finger which will give users the illusion that their fingers are actually depressing physical keys rather than just touching the touchscreen.
In some ways this reminds us of the Force Touch trackpad on Apple’s latest MacBooks which simulated clicks gives us the illusion of actually pressing the trackpad. No word on when Kyocera will implement this patent into its products, but it does seem like a pretty solid idea.
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