Touchscreen technology has become increasingly popular in aerospace and military applications with the hope of increasing usability, productivity, and safety. However, conventional touchscreens have not lived up to their potential by failing to provide users with the verifying tactile feel that a mechanical switch provides in high-pressure situations. Operators are faced with situations where they must divert their attention away from the task at hand to glance at a computer screen for confirmation.

The new tactile feedback touchscreen technology from Immersion Corporation offered by StacoSwitch, a southern California manufacturing company, has enhanced the conventional touchscreen by adding physical feedback to user interface. Visual and audio feedback are already used extensively, but there is no substitute for a tactile response. Users will not have to rely solely on sight and sound to determine if the touchscreen has registered their selection thus greatly reducing errors and improving usability.

Kevin Judd, vice president of Marketing for StacoSwitch said, "One of the single greatest barriers to the full adoption of touchscreens in many applications has been the lack of positive feedback," he said. "Many of the military applications we work with require operators to multitask in high-stress situations, and the operators need the positive touch feedback to know they have completed the activation of a system or function without diverting their attention fully to a screen to watch for visual cues. Sound is also often not an option, since the environments are generally noisy or the operator is wearing a helmet which filters out the sound."

Why tactile feedback? Just as "black and white" silent movies evolved to include High-Definition color with Surround Sound, touchscreen displays can be transformed into a much more pleasurable and intuitive interface. Adding tactile feedback to a flat, hard screen moves the user to the next generation of ergonomic efficiency.