Mobile Phone with Feeling

The technology that makes cellphones vibrate when people make a mistake while typing may help cut typing errors in touch-screen phones like the iPhone that lack the tactile feedback provided by a keyboard.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK claim that they can expel complications in touch screen phones by using actuators like those that used in cellphones to give a feeling of a keyboard.

Software called VibeTonz made by Immersion of San Jose, California, can get an actuator to move in different ways, such as smoothly or jerkily.

Corporations like - Samsung and LG, which make touch-screen phones, use this to provide rudimentary 'haptic' feedback when a button is pressed, but according to Stephen Brewster, the study's lead author, phones can do much more.

A single pulse 30 milliseconds long gives the feeling of a button being clicked, while sliding a finger from one button to another prompts a half-second long buzz, providing a 'rough' feeling that tells the user they've strayed to another key.

Sliding the finger across a button causes the buzz to be ramped up and then down, giving the feel of a round button.