Surface Haptics

A branch of haptic technology that creates tactile sensations directly on a flat surface, such as a touchscreen, by modulating the friction between a fingertip and the display. Unlike conventional vibration motors that shake the entire device, surface haptics produces localised texture effects felt only at the point of contact. This technology has significant accessibility potential because it can assign distinct tactile patterns to different user interface elements, giving blind and visually impaired users a non-auditory way to identify buttons, text fields, and other on-screen components through touch exploration.