Tactile -feedback

There are two methods where vibration or audio of the device is used as -an output method (when mobile device users interact with the device touch -screen):

As a tacticon 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.
As tactile feedback to indicate to the user that an interaction -event has been successful. For example, users receive tactile feedback when -they press a button on the touch screen.

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.

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.

The user can choose the level of tactile feedback and turn tacticons ON -and OFF.

The following table lists the tactile feedback effects:

Tactile feedback -effects - - - -
Effects
-
Description
- - - - -
Sensitive button
-
It provides single pulse effect on repeated key presses with buttons. -It is also possible with other similar components.
- - -
Basic button
-
It provides stronger single pulse effect to buttons. It is also -possible with other similar components.
- - -
Sensitive list
-
It provides single pulse effect to lists and grids. Effect is used -with move (drag and flick) when new item appears on the screen.
- - -
Basic list
-
It provides stronger single pulse effect to lists and grids. Effect -is used with touch down and release when tap makes an action.
In hierarchical -list, collapsing/expanding item provides basic list effect with touch down -and release.
- - -
Bounce effect
-
It provides pulse effect when list returns to its normal state after -boundary effect.
- - -
Sensitive slider
-
It provides pulse effect with scrollbar and slider thumbs. Effect -is provided with touch down and release in thumb area.
- - -
Smooth slider
-
It provides continuous smooth feedback when dragging scrollbar or -slider thumb. This can also be increasing or decreasing depending of the slider -type.
- - -
Hold slider
-
It 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.
- - -
Pop-up
-
It 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 -while closing. All pop-ups does not have theme animation.
- - -
Pop-up close
-
It provides decreasing smooth feedback while closing pop-up and -when theme animations are ON.
- - -
Increasing long touch
-
It 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.
- - -
Basic tab
-
It provides strong pulse effect with touch down event in tab area.
- - -
Smooth flick
-
It provides smooth feedback with drag when horizontal movement is -possible.
- - -
Sensitive flick
-
It provides sensitive pulse effect with touch release when horizontal -movement is possible.
- - -
Sensitive edit
-
It provides sensitive pulse effect in editors with touch down and -release.
- - -
Text edit
-
It provides pulse effect when painting the text. Effect is provided -with every character while painting the text.
- - -
Blank edit
-
It provides pulse effect when painting blank character. By default, -it is none.
- - -
Line edit
-
It provides pulse effect when painting a line.
- - -
Empty line
-
It provides pulse effect when painting an empty line. By default, -it is none.
- - -
Check box
-
It provides pulse effect when marking/unmarking a check box.
- - -
Multi-touch recognition
-
It provides double pulse (sensitive + sensitive) effect when multi-touch -is recognized (generally, when second finger is touched down).
- - -
Smooth pinch
-
It provides smooth continuous feedback while moving fingers in multi-touch -pinch situation.
- - -
Smooth rotate
-
It provides smooth continuous feedback while moving fingers in -multi-touch rotate situation.
- - - -

Characteristics -of haptics related APIs

You can use the following APIs to create -haptic effects:

Tactile Feedback -Client API
- It is available from S60 5th Edition onwards
- It can be used on all S60 5th Edition or later mobile devices. However, -the feedback is played only on touch enabled layouts.
- It provides simple functions for triggering various predefined tactile -feedback (vibration or audio) effects.
- It 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).
- 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).
- Direct feedback can be easily integrated into CCoeControl::HandlePointerEventL() .
- An application can select the logical tactile feedback from certain -types. The produced effect may be different on various mobile devices.
Haptics -API
- It is available from S60 5.2 Edition onwards.
- It can be used in touch and hybrid mobile devices.
- It provides an interface for accessing Haptics player that can control -different actuator types.
- It 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.
- It enables simultaneous playing of different kinds of basis effects -and modifying them when played.
- It allows for designing complex effects (using a separate PC application) -that can be loaded on Haptics player for playing.
- It may require a special license key for third-party applications -(to be set at runtime) to enable the Haptics player functionality.
Vibra API
- It available from S60 3.0 onwards
- It can be used for running device vibrator with given intensity for -a given period of time
- 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)

When to use -Tactile Feedback Client API, Haptics API, and Vibra API

You must -use

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
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.)
Vibra API for producing haptic effects such as ringing tone vibration -in those mobile devices where Haptics API is not available or functional

Using -tactile feedback in C++ applications

The API to use for tactile -feedback is the Tactile -feedback client API.

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. - MTouchFeedback::Instance() 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.

Tactile feedback can be set and disabled in a client -application or a mobile device in some scenarios, for example, during phone -calls.

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.

In your application, you can use -the following feedback types, defined in TTouchLogicalFeedback:

- - - -

ETouchFeedbackNone

It is used for disabling feedback in some areas of the application -window while using the area registry.

- - -

ETouchFeedbackBasic

It is used as a default feedback for stylus touch down events. For -example, when the mobile device user taps a button or tab.

- - -

ETouchFeedbackSensitive

It provides sensitive feedback in situations when:

the triggering action is not very important (for example, change of -focus in a list)
there can be a large number of feedback instances within a short time -(for example, text selection which gives feedback on every new selected character).

It is also used for scrolling and dragging.

- - - -

To use vibration or audio feedback in your application:

Include touchfeedback.lib in -your .mmp file.
Include touchfeedback.h.
To enable -tactile feedback for your application, add the following code.
MTouchFeedback* feedback = MTouchFeedback::Instance(); -feedback->SetFeedbackEnabledForThisApp(ETrue); // enabling feedback is optional
Do -not delete the pointer in the controller destructor.
To use tactile -feedback when a mobile device user points at a control, add the following -code.
void CMyContainerControl::HandlePointerEventL(const TPointerEvent& aPointerEvent) - { - // Feedback is always played at pointer down event - if(aPointerEvent.iType == TPointerEvent::EButton1Down) - { - MTouchFeedback* feedback = MTouchFeedback::Instance(); - if (feedback) - { - feedback->InstantFeedback(ETouchFeedbackBasic); - } - } - - // Your other pointer event handling code here -
To enable -automatic feedback triggering in a specific area of a UI component, add
feedback->SetFeedbackArea( this, - 1, // area Id - TRect( 0,0,20,20 ), - ETouchFeedbackBasic, - ETouchEventStylusDown ); -

To use tactile feedback in an application, additional platform -security capabilities are not required.

+ + + + + +Tactile +feedback +

There are two cases where vibration or audio of the device is used as an +output method:

As a tacticon 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.
As tactile feedback 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.

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.

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.

The user can choose the level of tactile feedback and turn tacticons ON +and OFF.

The following table lists the tactile feedback effects:

Tactile feedback +effects + + + +
Effects
+
Description
+ + + + +
Sensitive button
+
Provides single pulse effect on repeated key presses with buttons. +It is also possible with other similar components.
+ + +
Basic button
+
Provides stronger single pulse effect to buttons. It is also possible +with other similar components.
+ + +
Sensitive list
+
Provides single pulse effect to lists and grids. Effect is used +with move (drag and flick) when new item appears on the screen.
+ + +
Basic list
+
Provides stronger single pulse effect to lists and grids. Effect +is used with touch down and release when tap makes an action.
In hierarchical +list, collapsing/expanding item provides basic list effect with touch down +and release.
+ + +
Bounce effect
+
Provides pulse effect when list returns to its normal state after +boundary effect.
+ + +
Sensitive slider
+
Provides pulse effect with scrollbar and slider thumbs. Effect is +provided with touch down and release in thumb area.
+ + +
Smooth slider
+
Provides continuous smooth feedback when dragging scrollbar or slider +thumb. This can also be increasing or decreasing depending of the slider type.
+ + +
Hold slider
+
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.
+ + +
Pop-up
+
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 +. All pop-ups do not have theme animation.
+ + +
Pop-up close
+
Provides decreasing smooth feedback a pop-up and when theme animations +are ON.
+ + +
Increasing long touch
+
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.
+ + +
Basic tab
+
Provides strong pulse effect with touch down event in tab area.
+ + +
Smooth flick
+
Provides smooth feedback with drag when horizontal movement is possible.
+ + +
Sensitive flick
+
Provides sensitive pulse effect with touch release when horizontal +movement is possible.
+ + +
Sensitive edit
+
Provides sensitive pulse effect in editors with touch down and release.
+ + +
Text edit
+
Provides pulse effect when painting the text. Effect is provided +with every character while painting the text.
+ + +
Blank edit
+
Provides pulse effect when painting blank character. By default, +it is none.
+ + +
Line edit
+
Provides pulse effect when painting a line.
+ + +
Empty line
+
Provides pulse effect when painting an empty line. By default, it +is none.
+ + +
Check box
+
Provides pulse effect when marking/unmarking a check box.
+ + +
Multi-touch recognition
+
Provides double pulse (sensitive + sensitive) effect when multi-touch +is recognized (generally, when second finger is touched down).
+ + +
Smooth pinch
+
Provides smooth continuous feedback while moving fingers in multi-touch +pinch situation.
+ + +
Smooth rotate
+
Provides smooth continuous feedback while moving fingers in multi-touch +rotate situation.
+ + + +

Haptics concept

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.

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.

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.

Characteristics +of haptics related APIs

You can use the following APIs to create +haptic effects:

Tactile Feedback +Client API
- Available from S60 5th Edition onwards.
- It can be used on all S60 5th Edition or later mobile devices. However, +the feedback is played only on touch enabled layouts.
- Provides simple functions for triggering various predefined tactile +feedback (vibration or audio) effects.
- 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).
- 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).
- Direct feedback can be easily integrated into CCoeControl::HandlePointerEventL().
- An application can select the logical tactile feedback from certain +types. The produced effect may be different on various mobile devices.
Haptics +API
- Available from S60 5th Edition, FP2 onwards.
- It can be used in touch and hybrid mobile devices.
- Provides an interface for accessing Haptics player that can control +different actuator types.
- 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.
- Enables simultaneous playing of different kinds of basis effects and +modifying them when played.
- Allows the design of complex effects (using a separate PC application) +that can be loaded on Haptics player for playing.
- It may require a special license key for third-party applications +(to be set at runtime) to enable the Haptics player functionality.
Vibra API
- Available from S60 3.0 onwards.
- It can be used for running device vibrator with given intensity for +a given period of time.
- 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).

When to use +Tactile Feedback Client API, Haptics API, and Vibra API

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.
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).
Vibra API for producing haptic effects such as ringing tone vibration +in those mobile devices where Haptics API is not available or functional.

Using +tactile feedback in applications

The API to use for tactile feedback +is the Tactile feedback +client API.

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. MTouchFeedback::Instance() 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.

Tactile feedback can +be set and disabled in a client application or a mobile device in some scenarios, +for example, during phone calls.

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.

For more information, +see Feedback.

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