This startup may have beaten Apple to the punch in building a Force Touch keyboard trackpad hybrid
Sensel, a startup enterprise from Mountain View CA has been working on a technology that could potentially put Apple Force Touch trackpads to shame, or replace it entirely with this revolutionary design.
The Sensel Morph may look like your average trackpad, and as a matter of fact, its appearance is so inconspicuous, it could even be mistaken for a plain old regular mouse pad, but this invention is actually the most advanced, and most sensitive input device we have seen so far.
The Sensel Morph is built on a patented technology called “Pressure Grid”, which is capable of detecting pressure and position of any object that comes in contact with the touchpad, may that be human fingers, pencils, brushes, stylus pens and potentially even liquids, thanks to the 20,000 sensors embedded in the tracking surface.
What makes this product so unique is that it has the potential to render keyboards and trackpads obsolete, simply by overlaying printed templates over the tracking surface, such as laptop keyboards, music keyboards and custom user interfaces for gaming and professional custom applications, and its surface is so sensitive that the printed templates can even be embossed to simulate the feeling of a real keyboard, while still retaining adequate typing pressure.
By the same token, while using this device as a keyboard replacement is a very plausible scenario, the capabilities offered by this input device go far beyond what a regular keyboard can do. As shown on Sensel’s kickstarter page, the trackpad can be used with objects like paint brushes, to accurately render brush strokes in painting programs.
The potential to affect major players in the tech industry is very real, especially Wacom, whose patented technologies used in products like Cintiq or Bamboo, are nowhere near Sensel Morph’s capabilities.
As far as Apple is concerned, there is no reason for the company to worry. As amazing a product as the Sensel Morph clearly is, it’s definitely overkill, unless Apple decides to create a product with such specific characteristics, such as a completely new approach to the iPad.
By the time this product reaches commercial availability, consumer are expected to pay around $200-$300, which is still extremely affordable in respect to any comparable product on the market, especially since there is no comparable product available yet.