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<concept id="GUID-581A8E4B-12BE-41C0-A20E-3087A80FEECF" xml:lang="en"><title>Tactile feedback</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<p>There are two cases where vibration or audio of the device is used
as an output method:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>As a <i>tacticon</i> to inform users through physical feedback,
that an important event is occurring in the device. For example, when
a new message arrives or a warning note is displayed.</p></li>
<li><p>As <i>tactile feedback</i> to indicate to the user that an
interaction event has been made. For example, users receive tactile
feedback when they press a button on the touch screen.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As with sounds, tactile feedback must be used carefully so as not
to desensitize the user to the vibration; the attention grabbing quality
remains and functions so long as the feedback is not too frequent.</p>
<p>Tactile feedback is enabled for all the Symbian platform UI components.
Tactile feedback can be disabled for the common UI components in an
application. However, this is acceptable only if tactile feedback
causes interference with other device functions.</p>
<p>The user can choose the level of tactile feedback and turn tacticons
ON and OFF.</p>
<p>The following table lists the tactile feedback effects:</p>
<p><table id="GUID-4969AEA7-3BE4-4644-8232-1FA26D49010B"><title>Tactile
feedback effects</title>
<tgroup cols="2"><colspec colname="col1" colwidth="0.40*"/><colspec colname="col2" colwidth="1.60*"/>
<thead>
<row>
<entry valign="top"><p>Effects</p></entry>
<entry valign="top"><p>Description</p></entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Sensitive button</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides single pulse effect on repeated key presses with
buttons. It is also possible with other similar components.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Basic button</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides stronger single pulse effect to buttons. It is
also possible with other similar components.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Sensitive list</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides single pulse effect to lists and grids. Effect
is used with move (drag and flick) when new item appears on the screen.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Basic list</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides stronger single pulse effect to lists and grids.
Effect is used with touch down and release when tap makes an action. </p><p>In hierarchical list, collapsing/expanding item provides basic
list effect with touch down and release.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Bounce effect</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when list returns to its normal state
after boundary effect.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Sensitive slider</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect with scrollbar and slider thumbs.
Effect is provided with touch down and release in thumb area.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Smooth slider</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides continuous smooth feedback when dragging scrollbar
or slider thumb. This can also be increasing or decreasing depending
of the slider type.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Hold slider</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides sensitive pulse effect when touch down and hold
on the slider or scrollbar area. Slider thumb starts moving step by
step towards the touch point. Every step gives one sensitive pulse.
If slider thumb moves directly to the touch point, then basic slider
effect is provided.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Pop-up</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides sensitive pulse effect when pop-up is opened or
closed. If the theme animations are ON, then pop-up effect is used
with opening event after increasing long touch effect. In this scenario,
there is no pop-up effect . <note> All pop-ups do not have theme animation.</note></p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Pop-up close</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides decreasing smooth feedback  a pop-up and when theme
animations are ON.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Increasing long touch</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides increasing smooth feedback. This can be used with
either long tap animation or pop-up opening theme effects. If the
theme effects are ON and long tap opens a pop-up, then feedback is
provided only with long tap. This is followed by pop-up.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Basic tab</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides strong pulse effect with touch down event in tab
area.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Smooth flick</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides smooth feedback with drag when horizontal movement
is possible.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Sensitive flick</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides sensitive pulse effect with touch release when
horizontal movement is possible.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Sensitive edit</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides sensitive pulse effect in editors with touch down
and release.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Text edit</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when painting the text. Effect is
provided with every character while painting the text.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Blank edit</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when painting blank character. By
default, it is none.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Line edit</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when painting a line.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Empty line</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when painting an empty line. By default,
it is none.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Check box</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides pulse effect when marking/unmarking a check box.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Multiple Touch recognition</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides double pulse (sensitive + sensitive) effect when
multiple touch is recognized (generally, when second finger is touched
down).</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Smooth pinch</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides smooth continuous feedback while moving fingers
in multiple touch pinch situation.</p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><p><b>Smooth rotate</b></p></entry>
<entry><p>Provides smooth continuous feedback  while moving fingers
in multiple touch rotate situation.</p></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></p>
<section id="GUID-1EB54408-100B-4E4F-8D56-E13C26CA3B96"><title>Haptics
concept</title><p>The different senses associated to the skin are
called cutaneous senses. These senses are temperature, pressure (touch
itself), pain, tickle, itch and vibration senses. We can characterize
touch as passive or active. Passive touch means the sense of touch
itself, whereas active touch means the touch action.</p><p>To communicate
through the sense of touch, we have to stimulate some of the cutaneous
senses or the movement sense. The stimulation of the cutaneous senses
or one of them by a product is called tactile stimulation. Respectively,
the stimulation of the movement sense by a product is called haptic
stimulation or just haptics. Haptics is also used as general term
for all issues related to sense of touch, both human and machine.</p><p>Haptic feedback, often referred to as "Haptics", is the use of
the sense of touch in a user interface design to provide information
to an end user. In mobile phones, this generally means the use of
vibrations from the device's vibration alarm to denote that a touch
screen button has been pressed. In this particular example, the phone
would vibrate slightly in response to the user's activation of an
on-screen control, making up for the lack of a normal tactile response
that the user would experience when pressing a physical button.</p></section>
<section id="GUID-B9A35CA3-B830-4D97-9B0A-E22DC4A3CDA1"><title>Characteristics
of haptics related  APIs</title><p>You can use the following APIs
to create haptic effects:</p><ul>
<li><p><xref href="GUID-8661A7E0-F19A-41F8-9062-FBFAE70CF658.dita">Tactile
Feedback Client API</xref></p><ul>
<li><p>Available from S60 5th Edition onwards.</p></li>
<li><p>It can be used on all S60 5th Edition or later mobile devices.
However, the feedback is played only on touch enabled layouts.</p></li>
<li><p>Provides simple functions for triggering various predefined
tactile feedback (vibration or audio) effects.</p></li>
<li><p>Enables a consistent user experience in all applications of
the mobile device (an application gives a logical feedback type as
an input and the actual physical effect depends on the mobile device
configuration and end user settings).</p></li>
<li><p>When the area feedback is used, latency is low for the feedback
triggering (a tactile feedback can already be triggered at the window
server level prior to the corresponding pointer event being delivered
to the visible application).</p></li>
<li><p>Direct feedback can be easily integrated into <xref href="GUID-B06F99BD-F032-3B87-AB26-5DD6EBE8C160.dita#GUID-B06F99BD-F032-3B87-AB26-5DD6EBE8C160/GUID-5CF90E7A-4A91-36FF-BB3F-CF7CF687DED2"><apiname>CCoeControl::HandlePointerEventL()</apiname></xref>. </p></li>
<li><p>An application can select the logical tactile feedback from
certain types. The produced effect may be different on various mobile
devices.</p></li>
</ul></li>
<li><p><xref href="jar:GUID-558A5A9B-811E-4A87-B3DD-AE734C9AA966.jar!/public_specs/GuidesA/Haptics_API_Specification/Haptics_API_Specification.html" format="application/java-archive">Haptics API</xref></p><ul>
<li><p>Available from S60 5th Edition, FP2 onwards.</p></li>
<li><p>It can be used in touch and hybrid mobile devices.</p></li>
<li><p>Provides an interface for accessing Haptics player that can
control different actuator types.</p></li>
<li><p>Enables producing of complex vibrator effects, such as an explosion
or machine gun effect in a game, bass boost for a music player, advanced
ringing tone vibration, and so on.</p></li>
<li><p>Enables simultaneous playing of different kinds of basis effects
and modifying them when played. </p></li>
<li><p>Allows the design of complex effects (using a separate PC application)
that can be loaded on Haptics player for playing.</p></li>
<li><p>It may require a special license key  for third-party applications
(to be set at runtime) to enable the Haptics player functionality.</p></li>
</ul></li>
<li><p><xref href="GUID-D53A00E4-CF37-5F11-8D15-C5ECCCE64597.dita">Vibra
API</xref></p><ul>
<li><p>Available from S60 3.0 onwards.</p></li>
<li><p>It can be used for running device vibrator with given intensity
for a given period of time.</p></li>
<li><p>It can be used by a privileged client application to play pulse
effects, which have a very short duration (as the ones used for tactile
feedback).</p></li>
</ul></li>
</ul></section>
<section id="GUID-428F693C-1CA8-4588-9A7D-C4265D2AED91"><title>When
to use Tactile Feedback Client API, Haptics API, and Vibra API</title><p><ul>
<li><p>Tactile Feedback Client API for providing tactile feedback
in custom controls (grids, lists, and so on), which will comply with
the style of Core UI components to ensure a uniform user experience
among applications.</p></li>
<li><p>Haptics API on touch and hybrid mobile devices for producing
complex vibration feedback, which cannot be achieved with Tactile
Framework (games, simulations, demos, and so on).</p></li>
<li><p>Vibra API for producing haptic effects such as ringing tone
vibration in those mobile devices where Haptics API is not available
or functional.</p></li>
</ul></p></section>
<section id="GUID-8334E102-8F04-4726-9CD2-1D8004A417E1"><title>Using tactile feedback
in applications</title><p>The API to use for tactile feedback is the <xref href="GUID-8661A7E0-F19A-41F8-9062-FBFAE70CF658.dita">Tactile feedback
client API</xref>.</p><p>The Symbian platform includes a tactile feedback
interface to add, modify and remove feedback areas in the registry.
There is also an option to trigger direct feedback and bypass the
registry. <xref href="GUID-766333D1-8D66-3B81-9B5D-8C4245F78298.dita#GUID-766333D1-8D66-3B81-9B5D-8C4245F78298/GUID-962B6543-9A59-3E72-893D-F775FEC54ACB"><apiname>MTouchFeedback::Instance()</apiname></xref> is used for
acquiring a pointer to a touch feedback instance. When touch feedback
is activated, the mobile device users get a slight vibration when
the control with the feedback interface is touched. </p><note><p>Tactile
feedback can be set and disabled in a client application or a mobile
device in some scenarios, for example, during phone calls.</p></note><p>Client applications cannot determine the actual physical feedback
that is generated. It depends on device configuration and current
settings. In current devices, the user changeable settings include
vibration and audio feedback intensity level.</p><p>For more information,
see <xref href="GUID-21DAC50D-7737-42B6-BBDA-E12E8779741B.dita">Feedback</xref>.</p></section>
</conbody></concept>