Setting your eyes free

Visual elements dominate the mobile user experience. This creates a pressured, synchronous relationship between the user’s attention span and the device. MEX Pathway #9 asks how other senses, such as sound and touch, could be employed to create a new class of digital interactions, free from the constraints of the visual channel. Nokia’s Head of Design, Marko Ahtisaari, has previously highlighted the importance of this direction in future Nokia products. A recent patent filing from the company for ‘directional’ haptics revealed how the company might use numerous individual actuators to deliver high fidelity touch sensations to the user’s hand. The US Patent Office has the application and All About Symbian has this write-up.