Visual entertainment has come a long way from black-and-white soundless movies to VR headsets and surround sound. In comparison, tactile experiences in entertainment feel the same way, pun intended. At most, you’re getting more vibration if your phone detects higher pressure. To heighten our haptic experiences with our phones, Northwestern University engineers created an ultrathin bandage-like patch called VoxeLite.
Reversing pixels
We are used to pixels being invisible dots behind every screen. We don’t ever interact with them directly, but they are behind every frame change and image form. What VoxeLite does is reverse this concept by putting the dots on your skin. As mentioned, the device is a thin, flexible wearable device akin to a band-aid that you place on your fingertip. With electro adhesion, each touch can feel different through the device.
VoxeLite is equipped with nodes around 1mm apart and can move up to 800 times a second. The individual tiles can be tilted or indented. For lower voltage, it creates less friction, meaning the surface feels smoother. Meanwhile, a higher voltage can make the surface feel rough. Since the device is so thin, it can be deactivated without interfering with the traditional touch experience.
Future of touch
The engineers at Northwestern University ran various promising experiments with the VoxeLite. People were able to identify directional patterns with 87% accuracy and fabrics such as leather or terry cloth with 81% accuracy. The impact this technology could have on how we feel technology is immeasurable, especially for people with eyesight loss or visual impairments. Engineers envision a future where one can, for example, test out the fabric online before making the purchase.
The biggest challenge with this kind of innovation is adoption. Having a VoxeLite on your finger does nothing if the application on the other side does not take advantage of it. I personally want to stay optimistic and believe that we will soon look at the traditional touch screen experience similarly to black-and-white soundless movies — the beginning of a technology that never stops evolving.
Photo credit: The images used are owned by Northwestern University and were made available for press usage.
Source: Amanda Morris (Northwestern University)
