There’s a patent freshly published in South Korea for Samsung, that seems to detail the South Koreans’ idea of a Force Touch interaction on a future device. Sources say we may see its debut on the Galaxy S7, but first let’s see what the official documents say.
So far only Apple, Huawei and ZTE have dabbled into the area of pressure sensitive interaction with touchscreens on phones. The Samsung patent is called “Touch Input Apparatus and Electronic Device Having Thereof” and it was submitted in April 2014, but it was published only recently. The patent shows how a finger would work on a touch sensitive screen, with various levels of pressure being seen as various commands.
The amounts of pressure correspond to a different voltage. The use of pressure turns a space key into a tab key and that’s only one of the examples. You can also simulate a key stroke, change the case or do commands like copy or cut with that pressure. Now imagine combining this somehow into a new layer of interaction with the S Pen. Pretty cool, right?
via galaxyclub.nl