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by DonHopkins 2508 days ago
I saw a touch screen for controlling AV equipment at Sun decades ago that had a single solenoid underneath the glass that could thunk to provide tactile feedback as you pressed buttons and dragged sliders.
2 comments

My god. Sun invented the Taptic Engine.
I don't think they actually designed it, they just used it in one of their conference rooms.

By the way, are you "Le Jojo" of "Jojo on UI", or a different "that_jojo"? ;)

http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/x-windows/jojo-o...

Totally different jojo, sadly.
I've played with some tech demos that used electrostatic stiction (I may be remembering the name wrong) to create friction on a glass touch panel.

The high voltage needed makes it a no go for most/all portable devices.

I played with some other "cl controllable friction" tech but don't remember the basis of it. Iirc one actually made small indentations in the screen to simulate buttons. Had a bunch of limitations, I think the button placement was baked in at time of manufacturing, but it's been awhile and I don't trust my memory on the topic.