Immersion Demos New TouchSense Multitouch, Haptic Keyboard

Immersion (known for creative input experiences) demoed a fairly interesting new haptic experiment its working on dubbed TouchSense -- a virtual, iPhone-like keyboard that not only responds with sound and vibration, but some kind of feedback that recreates the feeling of actually moving your fingers across a keyboard. Details were scarce on the technology used, but during the demo at D7 the company showed off multitouch typing, and a new form of feedback which seems to create the sensation that there is a physical keyboard beneath your fingers. The functionality sounds eerily similar to the Haptikos technology that Nokia showed off way back in 2007.

I wonder how well this works? While currently the debate rages as to whether the Palm Pre with its physical keyboard is better than the iPhone with its virtual one, I can't wait for the day when haptic feedback technology like this will make typing on a touch screen feel like a physical keyboard (or at least allow you type just as fast) and end the debate once and for all.

via Engadget