Chennai: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras Researchers have developed a new touchscreen display technology through which a user can feel the textures from images as the finger moves across the touch surface. Existing touchscreens can only sense your location of finger touch.
Called ‘iTad,’ for interactive Touch active display, it is the next generation in Touch Display technology. Through the use of software, the researchers can create different textures such as crisp edges, switches and rich textures that range from smooth to gritty. A new level of interaction comes alive on smooth physical surfaces.
The research was led by Prof. M. Manivannan, CoE on Virtual Reality and Haptics, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras. Merkel Haptics, a start-up incubated at the IIT Madras Research Park, has been working with the Touchlab researchers to take the technology forward.