Touchscreen technology may be selling like hot-cakes in mobiles and other consumer devices, but technology firms want to improve it.
They want to put a 'click' back in to touch control.
The way this is done is a technique called bending wave haptic technology, and Cambridge-based NXT is working to add haptic technology to touchscreens.
NXT's approach is to turn the touch panel in to a loudspeaker using its SoundVu technology.
This uses a piezo actuator to introduce bending waves into the touch panel to create a loudspeaker.
If appropriate signals are applied it is possible to 'feel' the vibrations on the screen, allowing haptic feedback as well as high quality audio directly from a suitable touchscreen.
The aim said the company is to simulate the feel of writing or drawing on a textured surface.
Murata is another company which plans to use its piezoelectric technology to add haptic functions to touchscreens.
The word 'haptic' derives from the Greek verb to touch. It is not new as an engineering concept and has been used to describe operator systems in telecommunications and aerospace since the 1960s.
In fact, there was also a reference to haptic devices in the 1932 book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
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