Nokia has patented a new form of haptics feedback for its devices, this one intended to “generate a linear motion sensation in a direction at an exterior side of the housing to a user touching the housing” without moving the handset or device in question.
Nokia’s haptics patent is intended to bring additional functionality to software navigation but the company also envisions that it will prove useful in navigation and route guidance applications like a handset’s GPS “in addition to, or as an alternative to, the visual and audible user interface.”
Nokia has in recent months applied for other haptics patents, including a skin-based material that would vibrate in response to magnetic fields. Just how Nokia would use such an innovation has not been explained.