Boréas unveils NexusTouch haptic/force-sensing platform

Boréas Technologies has introduced NexusTouch, an integrated piezo haptic, gesture-detection and force-sensing platform that lets user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers create realistic, satisfying, and more personalized touch experiences on previously inaccessible real estate—the edges of Android smartphones.

“NexusTouch turns the phone’s edges into customizable interactive zones, allowing UI/UX designers to craft context-sensitive haptic effects where a button might feel like a trigger in a mobile gaming environment, a heartbeat on a health-tracking app, or a click that’s as reassuring as the shutter click of a DSLR camera,” said Simon Chaput, founder & CEO, Boréas Technologies. “NexusTouch also delivers a new level of gesture detection through force-sensing and advanced algorithms, allowing users to swipe, tap or fling on the side of the device to activate a particular function. And because it uses piezo haptics—a newer high-performing technology—it only vibrates the area under the user’s finger to enhance the touch experience, unlike legacy technologies that vibrate the entire phone.”

Boréas NexusTouch brings game console functionality to Android smartphones.

Evolution of touch technology

UI/UX designers have long faced constraints in advancing touch user interfaces in smartphones because the underlying technologies are so limited. While still the dominant touch technology, capacitive doesn’t support localized haptics or force-sensing, offering a rudimentary touch experience. Though it’s newer, ultrasonic technology provides gesture detection and force-sensing, but it doesn’t offer the localized feedback users also crave. NexusTouch, in contrast, supports localized haptic effects across the phone’s entire edges—as well as force-sensing—giving OEM and app designers a comprehensive human machine interface (HMI) solution for customizing user experiences by phone or by app.

“NexusTouch celebrates our emotional connection to our phones, empowering designers to create more personalized user experiences on the same piece of hardware,” said Chaput. “Game mode, for example, will feel different from camera mode, thus providing an accurate and immersive experience to the user who’s playing a favorite mobile game or trying to capture an important life moment on camera.”

Boréas NexusTouch makes an Android smartphone feel like a DSLR camera.