Is Force Touch Technology The Next Big Thing?

The technology allows a pressure-sensitive screen that mimics the very feel and response of physical buttons. 

The technological race of smartphone makers has entered a new era. Now, the focus is on Force Touch. This technology is already in use in Apple products like its Watches and some MacBook trackpads. But what is this feature and is there any real significance to it?

The fact is that haptic feedback, the tech behind Force Touch, has been around for a while. However, Apple’s developments may be the thing the world needs to make Force Touch relevant and mainstream. By sensing subtle changes in pressure, the mandatory swipe, scroll, and pinch functions can be made smarter with Force Touch.

The technology allows a pressure-sensitive screen that mimics the very feel and response of physical buttons. The addition of texture and feel makes the smartphone more intuitive to human needs. It will also provide a richer experience when using apps and games. Force Touch’s expected inclusion in the next iPhone is very much anticipated.

In light of this development, Huawei also just recently announced that they too are coming out with an Android phone that has Force Touch, the Huawei Mate S. They said that one of its uses is in zooming photos. By pressing harder on the screen, the display will zoom in without need for the typical two-finger approach. More details on its availability and price will be announced next month.

If Force Touch is good enough for Apple and the European Space Agency, then it must be good enough for regular folks.

The use of haptic feedback also got recent endorsement from space agencies. While in the International Space Station, Denmark’s first astronaut Andreas Mogensen successfully controlled a robot in the Netherlands using haptic feedback technology.

The ability to “feel” the robot’s own arms made the installation of a peg into a 1/16^th millimeter hole possible. The signals from the ISS to the Centaur rover traveled an astonishing 144,000 km roundtrip. Force Touch might be the key the world needs to start building on Mars and other distant worlds.

If Force Touch is good enough for Apple and the European Space Agency, then it must be good enough for regular folks. The real and practical possibilities of this technology is not yet 100% clear to us but one this is for sure, it is very exciting news to have a handheld haptic feedback-powered device indeed.