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Design Example: Resistive Touchscreen

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A device engineer plays a crucial role in designing user interfaces for mobile devices. One such interface is the resistive touchscreen, which fundamentally consists of two metallic layers: a flexible upper layer and a rigid lower layer, separated by a narrow gap. The high resistance between these two layers is a key characteristic of this design.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 19, 2026

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

Published on: June 3, 2009

Search efficiency for tactile features rendered by surface haptic displays.

John Ware, Elizabeth Cha, Michael A Peshkin

IEEE Transactions on Haptics

|December 23, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Novel haptic devices allow parallel search across multiple fingertips, unlike single-finger interfaces. Edge detection using these devices is efficient, suggesting engagement of primitive haptic perceptual systems.

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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2026

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

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Published on: June 3, 2009

Design, Fabrication, and Administration of the Hand Active Sensation Test HASTe

Design, Fabrication, and Administration of the Hand Active Sensation Test HASTe

Published on: September 8, 2015

Measurement of Vibration Detection Threshold and Tactile Spatial Acuity in Human Subjects

Measurement of Vibration Detection Threshold and Tactile Spatial Acuity in Human Subjects

Published on: September 1, 2016

Area of Science:

Human-Computer Interaction
Haptics
Perception

Background:

Traditional haptic interfaces require serial exploration of surface features.
Novel haptic devices offer potential for simultaneous multi-finger interaction and parallel search.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the capability of parallel search using variable-friction surface haptic devices.
To determine how distractors affect the detection of different surface features across multiple fingers.

Main Methods:

Participants used variable-friction surface haptic devices to detect target features among distractors.
Evaluated performance across different feature types: material property (slipperiness), illusory shape (virtual hole), and abrupt discontinuity (virtual edge).

Main Results:

Search for slipperiness and virtual holes was significantly impaired by distractors.
Search for virtual edges was not impaired by distractors.
Efficient edge detection suggests engagement of primitive haptic detectors.

Conclusions:

Surface haptic devices can enable parallel search, but performance varies by feature type.
Virtual edges rendered by surface haptics are efficiently detected in parallel, indicating a primitive haptic mechanism.
Haptic perception of abrupt discontinuities may be more robust to parallel search interference than material properties or illusory shapes.