Top Innovators: Pacinian

Think your phones touchscreen keyboard is too futuristic for your taste? Jim Schlosser and Cody Petersen have a way to give it that old-fashioned feel youre used to. They founded Pacinian in 2007 to tackle a tough tactile problem. Cell phone keyboards made a rapid jump from physical to virtual when they began using touchscreen-based virtual keyboards. But while the virtual keyboards may save space, they dont provide the same feedback you get from pressing a button or keyboard.

Pacinians HapticTouch technology provides realistic feedback, so that everyone from texters to people checking in at the airport can feel that theyve hit the right key. HapticTouch uses two conductive materials that are charged and separated by a thin layer of air. When the touch surface is pressed, the charged layers pull together, causing the touch layer to actuate. This creates a feeling of a button depressing, even when there is no button. HapticTouch can also use vibration to provide feedback, and both methods can be adjusted to the users specifications.

HapticTouch has potential applications in mobile phones, navigation devices and touchscreen computers. These applications all combine to form a multibillion-dollar industry. No devices are currently available with Pacinian technology, but the company is working with several developers and hoping to be featured in devices as early as 2011.