Can you imagine that by drawing with your fingers on your tablet you could feel the moisture and cold of painting? Or that when reading in it you not only made the gesture to turn pages, but feel as if you really you will play paper? This looks like science fiction and sounds so appealing is something that can be made a reality thanks to research on the alteration of electric fields.
Technological advances allow us to integrate more and more of our senses into the experiences of using devices. We recently had the news that Samsung has patented phones that transmit odors, and now we know that Disney holds a project called Revel (Reverse Electrovibration) whose research could be applied to touch screens so that they reproduce various types of textures when coming into contact with them.
The worker of such a miracle would be a small box that could be installed in the inside of the tablet and that it would transmit a weak electrical signal in our body when touching the screens, and that it would produce oscillating electrostatic fields, thus generating the desired tactile sensations. It would have the advantage of producing the effect easily, without the need for virtual reality gloves, for example.
The examples that we have given regarding its use in tablets are not the only possible ones, since it could also apply to games and applications of augmented reality. All of them, in any case, are very attractive but almost trivial uses compared to those that Disney plans for this technology that could, for example, facilitate the interaction of people with visual limitations with computers and other electronic devices. In addition, since it can produce the effect on any type of physical object, not just screens, the possibilities open are endless.
If you want to see this technology in operation in a more specific way, don't miss this video: