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Haptic technologies in Mobile devices

Maria Paananen

University of Tampere
Department of Computer Sciences
Computer Science / Int. Technology
Seminar "Haptic Communication and
Interaction in Mobile Contexts"
Fall 2008
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University of Tampere
Department of Computer Scienses
Computer Science/ Interactive Technology
”Haptic technologies in Mobile deivices”

Abstract

This paper consentrates to examine most commonly used haptic technologies in mobile devices
from designer point of view. How are they used and what are the benefits of each technology
are the main questions handled in here. How they affect to the desing and how the knowledge
of these technologies helps user interface design work.

Keywords
Haptics, tactile feedback, Vibra, piezo
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TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Haptic technologies in mobile devices ........................................................................................... 4
2.1 Vibra motors ............................................................................................................................ 5
2.1.1 Rotating vibra motor ......................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Linear vibra motor ............................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Piezo element.......................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Example devices ..................................................................................................................... 6
3. design point of view........................................................................................................................ 7
4. Conclution ...................................................................................................................................... 8
5. References..................................................................................................................................... 9
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1. INTRODUCTION

The mobile world has lived through enormous changes during its economic boom. The targets
have followed the global winds of change and all the mobile brands have tried to hang on to
these phases. Challenge has also been the fact that all the older changes are still targets even
thou the new ones arise all the time. So where are we now? Smaller phones, more powerfull,
more intelligent, user friendly, accessable for everyone and now touchable screens. There has
been already some touch screen phones but Apples iPhone exploded the bank last year. New
goal was set and all the mobile companies turned their concentration to that way. New race
started to develop these small touch screens to be user friendly with all the goodies.

One issue arised along touch screens in mobile devices is the luck of natural sensation of keys.
The sensation of touch is maybe the most effective sense man has and flat touch screens
brings new challenges to design and to technologies to compensate hardware elements for
touch elements. The solution to this challenge has been haptics and its variations between
technologies, design etc. Haptics is commonly known around the world as a vibrating feedback
in different areas for example in entertainment industry, touch screens, devices for visually
impaired people and cars, but in mobile devices it hasn’t been used publically so much as a
solution for usability challenges. Some of the brands have already used haptics in their devices
like LG but it is predictable that in the near future all the touch screens in mobile devices uses
somekind of haptic feedback. In this paper the terms haptic feedback and tactile feedback
means the same thing.

As a designer point of view one challenge in haptic feedback is the understanding of the
technology behind these effects. For this reason this paper exists, to clarify what is behind the
design and what possibilties different kind of technologies gives for designing.

2. HAPTIC TECHNOLOGIES IN MOBILE DEVICES

The usage of haptics in mobile devices is solution to usalbility issues areised from touch screen
devices. When there is no hardware key to handle things in mobile device the natural feeling of
button is missing and the usage can be more insecure. Also blind usage is harder when there is
no feedback in UI elements. In here I introduce two most commonly known and used
technologies: Vibra motors and Piezo element.
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2.1 Vibra motors

At the moment vibra motors are most used haptic technology in mobile devices. There is
different kind of vibra motors here I mention two of them, linear vibra and rotating vibra motor.

2.1.1 Rotating vibra motor

Rotating vibra motor is normally 4 mm. thick and 10 mm. long object which has eccentric mass
in the end of the shaft (See Figure 1.). Since the mass is eccentric it starts to vibrate when the
motor is turned on [1]. The mass is often made of tungsten [2] which has higher density than
iron and therefore enables the object to be smaller. This is very important in mobile industry.
The shape and size of the motor is very essential: the farther the mass’s midpoint is from axis
the longer it takes time to start.

When the motor gets voltage it starts to spin and shakes the mass in spinning direction.
Therefor motor is normally placed to vibrate the phone in vertical direction. The placement and
the size of motor haves an effect to the feeling of vibration. (See Figure 2.) The motor is driven
at a nominal voltage of 1.5 volts and a typical current is 60 mA. The voltage can be increased to
4 volts for a short duration. This makes the start-up quicker. [2]

Figure 1. Rotating vibra motor [1]

Figure 2. Vibration
direction

2.1.2 Linear vibra motor

Linear vibra motor is a round shape metallic can that is 8 mm in diameter and 5 mm in height.
The moving mass moves up and down in the can between two springs. Next to the mass are
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magnetic coil and when voltage is conducted to this coil it makes the mass vibrate [2]. The
working principle is similar with a loudspeaker.

2.2 Piezo element

Piezo element consists of two layers. First one is a brass layer and other one is somekind of
ceramic layer (See Figure 3.). It is called piezoelectronics. When voltage is conducted to this
element it deflects the whole element. Usually
the piezo element is placed between devices
frame and display. When the element deflects it
lifts the display up giving tactile feedback to the
Figure 3. Piezo element [3]
user.

Piezo element is faster than vibra motors and that’s why wanted haptic technology. When vibra
can take 30-40 ms. to start, the piezo element can do it with 0.5 ms. Piezo element also allows
controlling both the amplitude and the frequency of the tactile feedback at the same time [3],
which makes the usage more flexible from vibra motors. These elements can be used with
multiple layers.

2.3 Example devices

Using vibra motors and piezo elements in mobile devices gives opprturnities, but also limitations
to design work. Starting times and accuracy of different effects are dependent of used
technologie, the size of a device and other things which have to be taken into account.

There are already some devices on the market using vibra motors. Most known company
making these haptic technologies to mobile devices
is Immersion [5].The Company has contracts with
mobile brands like Nokia [7] and LG [6]. The
VibeTonz technology used in phones is giving more
opportunities for vibra usage. Another reason for
using their technology might be the fact that
Immerison owns most of the haptic patents.
Figure 4. LG KU990 uses VibeTonz
technology [8]
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Figure 5. Nokias new touch phone 5800 Xpress Music

Phone uses vibra motors to give haptic feedback. This
model does not have Immersion VibeTonz Technology.

For the meantime there are no pure mobile devices on the market which uses piezo element.
The piezo is wanted technology because of its fastness and accuracy of feedbacks, but the
maturity of mobile technology hasn’t been good enough yet.

3. DESIGN POINT OF VIEW

There is some design rules made for haptics in mobile devices. Kaaresoja and Linjama have
tested what would be the best duration of tactile feedback from user point of view and the result
was between 50 and 200 ms [9]. Also others have made these technical point of view
quidelines, but eventually designing the haptic feedback to mobile device starts from
imagination and end for testing.

The sense of touch is something we all have our own. Somebody feels it more sensitive than
others; some one gets irritated even from a small vibration when somebody wants to have it
strong. There are cultural differences, differences between genders and other human based
issues which all set challenges to designers. Designing mobile phones, which are everyday
devices for people, the variation of “best solution” design is impossible. Settings are commonly
known problem to users, so the default effects designed for UI have to be somehow globally
good. Because of the newness of haptics in mobile phones used with touch events we need
more testing, more reseach and more technologies to make better and better haptic feedback to
these devices. In the meanwhile we need to proseed through trial and error.
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4. CONCLUTION

Like many researchers have proved Tactile feedback improves the usage of touch screens [4,
10]. This is because of the missing natural feedback can be produced with haptics technologies.
The right solutions of technologies are dependent of the maturity of hardware, software design,
devices size, and code limitations etc. which all need to be thought when designing haptic
feedback to mobile phones. Still we need creativity not to think always the limitations, because
eventually everything is possible. We just need more time to develop more flexible more
accurate and more easy to use technologies. Good haptic design and implementation needs
knowledge of these different technology backgrounds, usability studies and still creativity to
make consistent, user friendly and still working haptic feedback to mobile devices, and that
means team work.
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5. REFERENCES

[1] T. Kaaresoja and J. Linjama, Perception of Short Tactile Pulses Generated by a

Vibration Motor in a Mobile Phone, WHC, 2005,
http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/WHC.2005.103

[2] M. Nisula, Thesis: Actuators For Haptic Feedback in Mobile Phones, University of
Oulu, 2008

[3] E. Koskinen, Thesis: Optimizing Tactile Feedback for VirtualButtons in Mobile

Devices, Helsinki Univerxity of Technology, 2008

[4] E. Hoggan, S.A.Brewster and J.Johnston, Investigating the effectiveness of tactile

feedback for mobile touchscreens, CHI 2008 Proceedings
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1357054.1357300

[5] VibeTonz System, Immersion Corporation, 2007,

http://www.immersion.com/mobility/touchscreen/vt-system.php

[6] reuters, LG and VibeTonz technology

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132930+25-Feb-
2008+BW20080225

[7] Mobile Tech News http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2007/07/02/125315.html

[8] LG KU990 Finnish Homepage,

http://nordic.lge.com/fi/prodmodeldetail.do?actType=search&page=1&modelCatego
ryId=0701&categoryId=0701&parentId=07&modelCodeDisplay=KU990&unit=NOTH
ING&model=Select+a+model

[9] T. Kaaresoja and J.Lilnjama, Perception of Short Tactile Pulses Generated by a

Vibration Motor in a Mobile Phone, Proceedings of the First Joint Eurohaptics
Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and
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Teleoperator Systems, 2005

http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/WHC.2005.103

[10] T.Kaaresoja, L.M.Brown and J. Linjama, Snap-Crackle-Pop: Tactile Feedback for

Mobile Touch Screens, Euro Haptics, 2006
http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:0B2m8f3wGm0J:research.microsof
t.com/~lornab/publications/kaaresoja_EH06.pdf+snap+crackle+pop+kaaresoja