Haptic touchpads are finally coming to Windows laptops. Here's why it matters.

Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Fundamental

Opening the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga 5G and you are greeted with a familiar layout for a laptop, albeit one packed with a lot of new cutting-border technology. The touchpad, which uses Microsoft Precision drivers, looks slightly distinct from the typical Lenovo style, and it feels unlike when information technology clicks. It's keen, simply different, something I chalked upwardly to the X1 Titanium Yoga's ridiculous thinness.

But I was wrong. It turns out that the touchpad was not clicking when pressed. It was in my head. A trick enabled past a company called Sensel who did the touchpad hardware. You lot see, this is ane of the first Windows laptops that uses a haptics touchpad with no moving parts.

Apple tree has done haptic touchpads for years, but it has taken fourth dimension for Windows PCs to grab upwards. To discover out why, I spoke with Sensel'southward Director of Product Management, Dean Chang, about why that is changing and what makes haptic touchpads so catchy. Here is what I found out.

Why is a haptics touchpad ameliorate than merely capacitive?

The benefits of a not-moving, haptics-based touchpad should exist apparent. Long term, there is less breakage from switch failure since zip is repetitively moving. There is more consistency in clicks since the arrangement can register corners just as easily as the eye resulting in no dead zones. In that location is no risk for a loose or rattling touchpad, an issue in mass production and quality control checks. And if the OS (or software) supports that extra dimension (pressure depth), it gives a new interaction model not currently available to "2D" touchpads.

Perhaps more critically, and certainly relevant to the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga, these touchpads can too be dramatically thinner than current ones that physically move up and down.

The challenge is tricking the user into thinking that touchpad click is a click and not just some software chicanery (fifty-fifty though that is precisely what it is). A lot of scientific discipline needs to go into force per unit area detection and the vibrating "kick" that makes it feel similar you just pressed something.

Today's gesture-based, capacitive touchpads rely on differentiating multiple touchpoints (i.eastward., fingertips) and Microsoft's universal Precision commuter software. Any PC maker can then license out touchpad hardware from companies similar Elan or Synaptics, slap in the drivers, and call it a day.

This point is critical to understand: companies like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Razer, and even Microsoft don't actually make touchpads. They work with companies that practise, just similar display panels or speaker components. This reliance tin can exist useful as it means HP does not need to sink millions into research and design (R&D) and patents for its own touchpad hardware, and, instead, information technology tin can continue its prices lower. On the other hand, Apple tree wants to control the entire hardware stack, which means information technology spends a lot on R&D. The higher-than-usual pricing of a MacBook Pro reflects this investment by Apple as it attempts to recoup those costs.

It turns out that the touchpad was not clicking when pressed. Information technology was in my head. A pull a fast one on enabled by a company chosen Sensel.

But when companies rely on Synaptics, by far the most common touchpad maker for premium PCs these days (Elan is the low-cost option), it besides means they can simply get what Synaptics offers. If a visitor like Lenovo needs an ultra-thin touchpad, preferably 1 that does not move, they can try to invent it themselves or promise another company does it for them.

Luckily for Lenovo, a company did: Sensel.

Founded in 2022 and based in Sunnyvale, California, Sensel has been researching haptics for years nether its PressureGrid proprietary engineering. The company's goal is "working to redefine computer interaction to combine pressure level sensitivity and multi-touch, to meet the environmental challenges of ubiquitous computing."

Its tech is now shipping in Lenovo's ultra-mobile convertible laptop, but there is a good take chances we'll see it from other PC makers likewise.

Apple did it; why not anyone else?

Apple's late-2020 MacBook Pro (M1) with a haptic trackpad. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Key

One of the first questions I had for Chang was why information technology had taken so long for Windows laptops to get like tech to Apple. After all, the benefits outlined above are apparent, and PCs would slowly move to non-mechanical touchpads.

The trouble is yous cannot just copy Apple tree. More precisely, yous cannot only recreate what Apple does for its touchpads, put your name on information technology, and call information technology even-steven. Like most companies who dump coin into inventing groundbreaking tech, Apple patented everything that goes into its Force Touch touchpads, including its Taptic Engine. Any company fifty-fifty coming closes to Apple's techniques is open for massive lawsuits.

A more than straightforward manner to put it is if you want a haptics-based touchpad for Windows, someone must reinvent how to practice it with entirely unlike methods than Apple tree. Ever effort to reinvent the bicycle? Yes, same problem.

Luckily, Sensel pulled information technology off, and Lenovo is the first major client. But other PC makers are considering using the scalable tech as well.

How is information technology? Testing the X1 Titanium'south Haptic Touchpad

Pictured: Lenovo'southward new ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga 5G (2021). Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

The Sensel touchpad used in the Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga has some exciting advantages – and differences – from almost premium touchpads.

For one, it does not have the typical drinking glass layer. Sensel can add glass and capacitive bear upon, only it can likewise leave information technology off for more than industrial designs. ThinkPads are meant to be rugged, long-lasting, and take abuse compared to Surface Laptop, which is more than ornate and delicate.

The Titanium Yoga'southward touchpad is still extremely shine, and I could barely tell the difference between it and one with drinking glass. But the alter also means y'all tin operate this touchpad while wearing gloves, which is wild. For companies similar Panasonic, which specialize in TOUGHBOOK designs intended to be used outdoors and fifty-fifty in the pelting, this could be a massive reward.

Give anyone a become at using this touchpad, and they will tell you it has a physical click to information technology. Of course, it does not.

Accurateness, gestures, multi-touch – it all felt like a typical Microsoft Precision touchpad to me with a high degree of responsiveness, smoothness, and accurateness. Lenovo's continued insistence on keeping TrackPoint, which takes up space on the touchpad with its corresponding correct and left buttons, is the only annoyance.

The real magic, though, comes from clicking. Give anyone a get at using this touchpad, and they volition tell you it has a concrete click to it – a shallow only discernable low and kickback. Of class, it does not. Instead, a small-scale motor vibrates at the right time, giving y'all that awareness. There is as well an aural click that, once more, completely fooled me.

Sensel notes that this touchpad "… offers two functions in a single, ultra-thin sensor: position reporting with loftier accuracy (10&y), and force sensing (z). This allows for a dramatic reduction in device thickness, which made it a perfect fit for the thinnest ThinkPad ever."

While it felt like it had less travel than Lenovo'due south typical ThinkPad touchpads, I could say the same almost the keyboard too. I just chalked it upward to everything being new in this Ultrabook. But one time I learned that it is all a mirage, I was blown away.

Compared to Apple's Force Bear upon establish in the new M1-based MacBook Pro, I prefer Sensel's solution. Most of the praise for Apple's touchpad is its sheer size and smoothness, but the actual Force Touch is too a bit weird compared to its older mechanical touchpads. It's not bad, simply, yous know, unlike. The same applies here, although the "click" sounds more normal with Sensel'south pattern, whereas Apple tree's has a weird "thonk" to it.

Sensel'southward method seems to accept found a prissy balance, fifty-fifty if the Titanium Yoga's execution is a bit on the small size. Only smallness is by design hither due to the X1 Titanium's requirements. Sensel can easily go way beyond what I am using today.

The time to come of Haptic Touchpads is already here

Chang shared with me a developer sample of Sensel's latest Haptic Touchpad recently announced at CES 2022. The demo unit of measurement can plug into whatsoever PC and used immediately like any external touchpad. PC makers can try this themselves to understand how the tech works to see if it is something they would desire to use. But this version is even more avant-garde than the one in the ThinkPad as it supports a hard glass covering, which is expected now in premium consumer laptops.

There are three levels of proprietary tech in this new touchpad, which is what makes it so unique. Information technology'south also challenging to practice. Chang notes some companies tin do some of these features well, but none can practice them all, which returns us to the signal about why nosotros haven't seen anyone ship these nevertheless for Windows PCs.

Those three levels of interaction on Sensel's new Haptic Touchpad include:

• Capacitive Bear on Grid: This captures an extremely high-resolution touch epitome on the surface of the pad.
• Force Field Technology: This captures the amount of force applied per finger and converts it into both force and shape information
• Straight Drive Haptics: This provides powerful kicks in i moment and crisp clicks in the next based on the corporeality of strength applied.

The module itself is just 3mm thick, letting PC makers create even thinner laptops (or allow for larger batteries). Because it is so thin, it opens the door for PC makers to revamp current laptop designs, which is what we come across with the X1 Titanium.

Sensel's Haptic Touchpad can "run into" how hard y'all press on it even with multiple fingers. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Fundamental

Other features of this touchpad include:

• Haptic Command: Sensel's direct-drive haptics applied science allows you to dynamically adjust the haptic upshot the user feels when they printing on the touchpad.
• Incredible Linearity: A combination of a high-resolution touch grid and Sensel hardware compression provides all-time-in-class linearity of <0.5mm across the entire sensor.
• Less False Touch Failures: With electrodes that are spaced closer together, the solution is less susceptible to faux impact failures even with smaller finger sizes.
• Dynamic Scanning Rates: Dynamic scanning at diverse resolutions allows for performance when you demand it while simultaneously balancing lower power consumption.

Excitingly, that Force Field Technology applies to software likewise. Imagine pressing on the touchpad, and the corporeality of force tin can speed upwardly the rotation of a 3D paradigm, raise the book on a slider, or how fast you scroll downwards a webpage. That is because at present "depth" (Z) is measurable with high precision instead of merely X and Y coordinates.

Of form, such a software feature would have to be implemented by an application with direct support. Additionally, Microsoft would demand to build out support at an Os-level, much equally it did for multi-gestures in Windows 10. Only in that location is no reason why Microsoft could not develop some standards for pressure-based gestures in its Precision driver suite as an option for OEMs.

Lenovo could add Sensel's haptic tech to the E Ink keyboard on the Yoga Book C930 from 2022. Source: Windows Central

If a laptop maker wanted a larger touchpad, Sensel could apply the tech to make the entire keyboard deck a touch and force-sensitive trackpad. At that place is no limit on what can exist done, including having a seamless touchpad area indistinguishable from the laptop deck.

For those wondering how y'all solve the problem of typing on a dual-screen laptop, Sensel's vision is one obvious answer. While there is no indication that Microsoft will use such a solution in its now delayed dual-screen Surface Neo, it seems articulate that they could if they wanted.

Making a haptics-based touchpad non based on Apple's blueprint is arduous work that few companies have achieved.

Lenovo could even employ this aforementioned technology to its E Ink keyboard on its Yoga Volume C930. Instead of only an audible "clicking" to help simulate haptics, the keys themselves could individually vibrate, mimicking an actual click like a physical keyboard.

One of the more fascinating features of the demo sample of Sensel's Haptic Touchpad is the configuration options. With a click of a push (or the slider), yous can make the touchpad click feel light and well-baked or go far feel deep and heavier (like a more than traditional trackpad). It'due south both bizarre and fascinating as it means anytime users may be able to tailor their touchpad "clicks" to their personal preference, similar to an Actuation Point Changer (APC) on mechanical keyboards.

And for those request, Sensel currently has no plans to sell a large desktop version of its touchpad for Windows PC users. Still, I did mention how Logitech never refreshed its famed T650 desktop touchpad and it'd be fun for Sensel to slide into that niche spot.

Pictured: Microsoft'south patent to find gestures and orientation based on force per unit area points on Surface Duo'due south back. Source: Microsoft

And forget screens, Sensel could as well put its Force Field Engineering into the backs of phones (or a Surface Duo) to enable orientation and grip detection. The thought may sound zany, but Microsoft has already patented such a concept in a device that looks exactly like what is now Surface Duo.

Fifty-fifty Surface Pro and Surface Pro X could do good from a non-moving touchpad in those super thin Blazon Covers, where space is minimal.

Force Field Touchpads are feeling good

Sensel's Haptic Touchpad (2021) demo unit and configuration software with Surface Pro 7. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

I've been using the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga for a few weeks now, and I'll get in-depth on some of the crazy engineering science on that device presently. But for now, the takeaway is haptic touchpads for Windows PCs are finally here, and the start impressions are excellent.

Just how rapidly companies like HP, Dell, Razer, ASUS, and others prefer haptic solutions like those from Sensel remains to exist seen. It took far likewise long for those companies to adopt Precision drivers, and companies like Synaptics effectively own about of the touchpad market. Contracts and supply chains run deep, which could slow things down.

The ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is Sensel'southward real first examination run of a haptic touchpad, and based on feedback, it will decide its place in hereafter Windows PC hardware. And then far, it's feeling practiced.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/sensel-haptic-touchpad-windows-pc

Posted by: hernandezplingers.blogspot.com

Share this post