Touch screen interfaces are extremely popular nowadays. However, despite the hype, user satisfaction from using a touch screen device is not as high as it should be. Certainly there are many reasons behind this. However, one particular reason I am going to address here is the Response. When pressing a button on a touch screen, we can’t really experience the feeling of pressing a button. Samsung has tried to improve this by introducing Haptic Technology. However, from a personal point of view, this doesn’t really help the case.

In this year’s Wireless Japan Conference, NTT DoCoMo demonstrated a technology that actually delivers that tactile sense to users even at a remote distance. According to NTT DoCoMo, this technology can be used for users to actually feel the sense of touch from a remote distance before buying a product, perhaps like fabric from clothes.

via:
[Tech-on!] NTT DoCoMo Demos ‘Tactile-kinesthetic Sense’ Communications

Below is a clip of NTT’s Virtual 3D Tactile Touch which was shown in 2007. I guess the technology has improved much greater in the last two years.