Haptic technology revolves around creating a new kind of user interface that better connects our sense of touch with the form factors we use every day: smartphones, tablets, computers, etc. We get a brief glimpse of the possibilities that haptic technology offers when our phone vibrates in our pockets, letting us know that we’ve received a text message, or with the rumbling sensation we get from console game controllers.

It is truly amazing what developers all over the world are managing to come up with in the field of perceptual computing. Perceptual computing is something that Intel® is putting a lot of time, energy, and resources into, as seen in the recently finished Ultimate Coder: Going Perceptual competition and the ongoing Intel® Perceptual Computing Challenge, which is about to kick off into its second phase on May 6^th.

Our sense of touch is vitally important. It’s involved in literally every interaction we have. When it comes to human-computer interaction, touch is especially important, especially as touch-enabled input controls and interactive experiences make our computing experiences ever more tactile. As more and more devices are adapting touch-enabled features, controls, and form inputs to satisfy consumers’ ever-growing appetite for tactile input, we’re seeing new advances from a wide variety of fields.

Haptic technology

Last week, our Challengers submitted the final version of their perceptual computing apps to the judges, and this week, it was testing time.  Our judges took on the task of putting each project through its paces, and wrote up their first thoughts on each and every one – in addition to general thoughts on the Challenge and the future of perceptual computing. Are there clear winners for our judges? Not quite yet, and the final verdict won’t be in until next week when we announce the winners on April 24. Here’s what our judges had to say after their initial testing periods: