Soon you might be able to touch and feel the online products through your smartphone

• IIT Madras has developed a new touchscreen technology that enables users to feel the texture of images.
• This new technology, ‘iTad’ uses an in-built multitouch sensor that detects finger movement and surface friction.
• Earlier, a Japanese professor developed a lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavours.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have claimed to develop a new touchscreen display technology that allows users to feel the texture of images as their finger goes across the touch surface. Currently, touchscreens can only sense the position of one’s fingers but offer no feedback.

This new technology is known as iTad - (interactive Touch Active Display), and it can mimic textures such as gritty surfaces and crisp edges. It is the next generation of in-touch display technology, said IIT Madras.

There are no moving parts in iTad; however, it has an in-built multitouch sensor that detects finger movement and surface friction and adjusts via software. Further, to make this work, electric fields in the touchscreen are controlled via a physical phenomenon known as 'electroadhesion’.

According to a lead researcher and a professor in the department of Applied Mechanics, M.Manicannan, this technology can take online shopping to the next level as we can touch and feel things before we buy them, especially clother. Also, around 30 percent of product returns are due to the mismatch of user experience. Their expectations are different by looking at the images online.

To advance this technology, IIT Madras has collaborated with Merkel Haptics, a start-up housed at the IIT Madras research park.

CEO of Merkel Haptics, PV Padmapriya, said, “The prototype from Touchlab can be made into a product in a year. We aim to make a small device, similar to a computer mouse, on everyone's desk to add to the experience. We have been field testing and providing valuable feedback to the researchers at IIT-M on improving the functionality of the technology."

Still at an early stage

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about this technology. It has been developing for over a decade, where researchers use electro-vibration to make for a better sensory experience on a smooth touch surface.

Similarly, a Japanese professor has developed a prototype lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavours, a step towards creating a multi-sensory viewing experience. The device is called TV (TTTV), and it uses a carousel of 10 flavour canisters that spray in combination to create the taste of a particular food.

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