Next laptop Might not Have a Keyboard – They improve haptic feedback technologies when implemented in laptop touchpads. In the future, they could end the presence of keyboards with physical keys.

Last month Sony introduced the DualSense Edge a premium PlayStation 5 controller. With interchangeable joysticks and customizable controls.

The kind of high-end gamepad fans has been waiting for from the Japanese company.

It is a rival device to Microsoft’s Xbox Elite which is now in its second generation of development

And it is that Sony itself has come to feel a little aggrieved by the clamour of people to update the default DualSense controller of the PS5.

After all, it’s no slouch, and even as an entry-level device, it’s capable of offering something no Xbox pad does: adaptive triggers and advanced haptics.

Why your Next laptop Might not Have a Keyboard

This goes far beyond the fundamental vibrations introduced to gaming by the N64’s Rumble Pak add-on in 1997. Allowing players to feel the tension of a bowstring being pulled taut when shooting at the target.

Shooters like Deathloop use it to create a different trigger feel for each gun or even to simulate the feeling of a gun jamming when the trigger is locked.

Of course, haptics goes way beyond gaming. You’ll probably find them more on your phone, where ringtones and text alerts have been phased out in favour of the gentle buzz of vibrate mode.

This year they’ve gone a step further when iOS 16 introduced the option to add haptic feedback to the keyboard as you type, setting Android owners are more familiar with, having turned it off a decade ago for being annoying.

Manage the trackpad – laptop Might not Have a Keyboard

Perhaps Apple has finally gotten around to adding haptic feedback to the iPhone’s keyboard after the positive reception. The haptic trackpad has been built into certain MacBooks since 2015.

Dubbed ‘Force Touch’, these trackpads don’t move, as instead of basing their operation on static sheets of glass, they use sensors to detect your input and rattle the keyboard, so you feel the ‘click’.

Perhaps Apple has finally gotten around to adding haptic feedback to the iPhone’s keyboard after the positive reception. The haptic trackpad has been built into certain MacBooks since 2015.

Dubbed ‘Force Touch’, these trackpads don’t move, as instead of basing their operation on static sheets of glass, they use sensors to detect your input and rattle the keyboard, so you feel the ‘click’.

Apple’s implementation doesn’t change how we use our laptops; this is where the Aito company comes in with its motto of bringing surfaces to life.

The Amsterdam-based haptic technology company already supplies haptic trackpads to major Windows laptop brands, and its ambitions go further: changing laptop trackpads as we know them today.

For manufacturers, an immediate benefit of a haptic trackpad is that it is smaller than a traditional trackpad, allowing them to maintain a thinner laptop design or have more room for their batteries.

Aito’s version of the technology is only 2.4mm thick, thinner than a mechanical pad and less than half the depth of Apple’s technology.

Aito also claims that its haptics is more advanced than Apple’s, thanks to the use of twelve different points for detection and feedback. Using these together can detect the precise position of your finger.

More Than Just a Click – laptop Might not Have a Keyboard

However, haptics can go far beyond a mechanical click. More advanced options include different feel for one-, two-, and three-finger clicks.

Simulate the feel of a mouse scroll wheel as you scroll down a page, or create the same spring-like tension of the DualSense to indicate how hard you press the surface.

There are practical results here. A demo CEO Nedko Ivanov showed me created a subtle swipe tension. When I pressed and dragged the cursor to select the text, disappearing once I released it.

Another possibility is aimed at high-end manufacturers. Who want to embed haptic trackpads invisibly into the body of a laptop, as Dell has done in this year’s XPS 13 Plus (Aito would neither confirm nor deny his technology is responsible).

With the naked eye, it’s impossible to tell where the trackpad ends. And the chassis begins but an invisible haptic edge is all your finger needs.

The latest generation Huawei MateBook X Pro has its haptic trackpad, which uses it as feedback for new shortcuts, like swiping down or up on both sides to control volume and also screen brightness.

It has also been implemented in the upper part of the touchpad area. Where the scroll bar with a soft click sound allows us to move forward or backwards.

When we handle the playback of videos including on the YouTube platform.

Until now, this technology has been limited to expensive premium devices. Though Ivanov is confident it has a mainstream appeal that could spread to other entry-level devices.

“I would say that in the next two years, it will trickle down to the so-called middle segment,” Ivanov told me, predicting that the significant paradigm shift will kick in during 2024.

Keys to the Future – laptop Might not Have a Keyboard

However Aito’s ambitions go beyond the touch panel and want to replace almost all the moving parts of the modern laptop. After all, if you can simulate a trackpad, why not a keyboard?

We’re already seeing manufacturers develop dual-screen devices like the Asus ZenBook Duo range or laptop-sized foldable like Lenovo’s .Recently updated ThinkPad X1 Fold. Which uses a detachable magnetic keyboard.

But if the bottom half of our laptops become full screen. Then the keyboard will have to go forever just as it did on our phones not too long ago.

Typing on a smartphone is one thing, but typing on a laptop is another. And as Ivanov says, if you’re going to persuade consumers to give up the keyboard.

Then “they should have a much better typing experience on a screen than they can get on an iPad.”

However, Aito’s tech comes surprisingly close to the real thing. Thanks partly to including enough motors to deliver individualized feedback exactly where you type. Rather than ringing the entire device as your phone does.

Aito’s implementation is natural feels fast and even enables new options. like pressing harder to type a capital letter. The kind of customizable settings that could hypothetically help you order faster.

Will it conquer the sector of gamers and lovers of mechanical keyboards.

Who argue about the types of switches and also the distances they should have? No. But you don’t have to: Most laptop keyboards already provide a compromised typing experience.

Still consumers are unlikely to jump at the chance to give up their ‘real’ keyboard. In favour of a haptic alternative. But manufacturers have plenty of incentives to encourage buyers.

Incorporating a keyboard into a display allows for slimmer laptops. It saves enormous manufacturing costs in the long run. Freeing companies from the need to build models with different keyboards for each market or language.

Ivanov told me that Aito is already working with an OEM to implement his on-screen keyboard. So we could see it coming soon. He is also working on a haptic mouse.

We are still a few years away from seeing these types of implementations applied to real life. But the promise of simplifying supply chains.

While adding new features ensures that haptics is here to stay and from what I’ve seen, only they will improve