Most researchers distinguish three sensory systems related to sense of touch in humans: cutaneous,

kinaesthetic and haptic

All perceptions mediated by cutaneous and kinaesthetic sensibility are referred to as tactual perception.

The sense of touch may be classified as passive and active, and the term "haptic" is often associated
with active touch to communicate or recognize objects.

Back in 2011, tactile displays were thought to be the next big thing in mobile computing, since you can't
feel anything from glass-fronted smartphones.

when the development of machines and robots started, Those mechanical devices also had to touch and
feel their environment, so researchers began to study how this sensation could be transferred to
machines. The era of machine haptics had begun.

The earliest machines that allowed haptic interaction with remote objects were simple lever-and-cable-
actuated tongs placed at the end of a pole.

Tanvas, a startup out of Northwestern University, is looking to change all of that with its prototype
haptic display.

It's a system that can theoretically bolt onto any existing touchscreen, although some of its most
exciting uses may not be on a smartphone (or tablet).

Tanvas is the product of a decade of research by Ed Colgate and Michael Peshkin, and uses electrostatics
to modulate friction.

In layman's terms, it uses statics to alter the friction that your finger is feeling as you move it across the
touchscreen.

For instance, your digits will bump along a series of horizontal lines, feeling the ting of every tooth in a
zip or the roughness of sandpaper.

It's certainly not as if you're touching the real thing, but it's a very distinct feeling nonetheless.

One of the most exciting demos that the company showed off was related to automotive displays, like
the one you'll find in a Tesla.
Rather than having to look at the screen, the Tanvas screen can actually give you the sensation of a
notched controller.

So, when you want to activate something, you'd push a switch into the adjacent gear as you would on a
real car.

For now, Tanvas is just showing off a prototype that it bolted on top of a Nexus 9.

But if it can garner some interest from the tech industry, maybe it won't be too long before we see it in
a working product.