Nokia presents the most advanced Haptics technology, giving tactile feedback to a virtual keyboard on a touchscreen that resembles a real physical keyboard.

The problem in perfecting the tech – codenamed Haptikos, meaning ‘to touch’ – lies in how our fingers experience a key press. We actually feel two movements, in and out, and these movements and the associated audio have to be perfectly attuned to the speed and responsiveness of a real keyboard. In use, the touch feedback on the demo device was near on perfect. Each press of a key returned a clunky click and tactile snap on the touchscreen, which made typing feel incredibly responsive and very usable on the smooth screen surface. In fact it was hard to remember that you were using a touchscreen keyboard.

Nokia will fully integrate the Haptikos technology with their upcoming touchscreen smartphone to rival Apple’s iPhone and its future iterations.