Face it, Apple. You lost. - Sensel Force Haptic Touchpad

# A革命性的触摸板技术：Sensel的力感触控解析

## 引言

你是否曾经对现状感到满意，却在发现更好的事物后，觉得一切都变得逊色？这就是我们在比较不同设备和技术时常常会经历的感受。无论是笔记本电脑还是手机，触摸板作为我们日常操作中不可或缺的一部分，其性能直接影响着我们的使用体验。然而，当前市场上的触摸板技术似乎已经达到了瓶颈，直到 Sensel 的出现，才真正为这一领域带来了革命性的突破。

在本文中，我们将深入探讨 Sensel 的力感触控技术，并解释为什么这项技术如此令人兴奋。同时，我们也会介绍一个值得你关注的赞助商——CableMod，他们提供个性化定制电缆的服务，让你的设备外观更加独特。

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## 触摸板的历史 lesson

为了更好地理解 Sensel 技术的独特之处，我们需要先回顾一下触摸板的发展历程。早期的笔记本电脑主要使用的是电阻式触摸板。这种技术通过两层导电材料和绝缘垫组成，当手指触碰到屏幕时，会完成电路并被边缘的四个传感器检测到位置。尽管这种方法在戴手套操作时表现尚可，但它存在许多缺陷：屏幕显示模糊、精度低，并且仅支持单点触控。因此，电阻式触摸板逐渐被淘汰，主要用于一些简单的设备，如自动售票机。

随着技术的进步，现代设备普遍采用电容式触摸屏或触摸板。这种技术基于人体的导电性原理，通过在屏幕下方布置正负电极，检测手指接触时电场的变化来确定位置。这种方法虽然更为灵敏和精确，但仍存在一些局限性。

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## Sensel 的力感触控：一种全新的交互方式

Sensel 的触摸板采用了一种完全不同的工作原理——它不再依赖于手指的导电性，而是通过检测施加在屏幕上的力量来实现触控功能。这种技术的核心在于一种名为“力感测电阻器”（Force Sensing Resistor, FSR）的组件。

FSR 由一个印刷银层和一层含有微小导电颗粒的聚合物组成。当手指按压屏幕时，这些导电颗粒会因压力而聚集，形成多个短路路径。通过测量导电层上的电阻变化，系统可以精确地感知施加的力量大小。这种技术不仅能够实现多点触控，还能支持更复杂的手势操作，例如用大号冬季手套精准操控触摸板。

更令人惊讶的是，FSR 的工作原理涉及到量子隧道效应。当压力作用于 FSR 时，导电颗粒之间的距离会缩短，从而增加了电子在它们之间穿行的机会。这种现象导致了电阻的变化，并最终被转化为可测量的力值。尽管目前科学界对 FSR 的具体工作机制尚未完全达成共识，但 Sensel 已经成功地将这一技术应用于其触摸板中，展示了其巨大的潜力。

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## 应用与前景

Sensel 的第一款商用触摸板搭载在 ThinkPad X1 Titanium 上，标志着力感触控技术首次进入主流市场。这项技术不仅提升了用户体验，还为未来的交互设计开辟了新的可能性。例如，用户可以通过轻点、按压或滑动等不同的力度来实现更多功能，而不仅仅是依赖于传统的触控手势。

此外，Sensel 的技术还可以扩展到其他领域，如智能家居设备和医疗仪器。通过高精度的力感反馈，这些设备可以提供更加智能和人性化的交互体验。

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## 结语

从电阻式触摸板到电容式传感器，再到 Sensel 的力感触控技术，触摸板的发展历程体现了科技不断进步的力量。Sensel 的创新不仅为用户带来了全新的操作方式，也为未来的技术发展奠定了坚实的基础。

如果你对个性化定制电缆感兴趣，不妨访问 [CableMod 的配置器](#)，打造属于你的独特风格！

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这篇文章基于提供的视频转录内容，详细介绍了 Sensel 的力感触控技术及其历史背景，并穿插了赞助信息，确保每一部分都得到了充分的展开和阐述。

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Don't you hate it when this happens,you're perfectly happy with what you have,then, you find somethingthat's so much betterthat everything else turns to garbage.This luxurious trackpadon the XPS 15, garbage.The pinnacle of touchpaddesign on this MacBook here,limp garbage,and that's no exaggeration.The folks over at Sensel canhonestly call this touchpada completely new way to interactwith your laptop or phone.And I am super excited to be the first oneto properly explain it.Just like I'm going to explainwhy you should check outour sponsor, CableMod.CableMod allows you topersonalize the look of your PCwith custom colored sleeved cables.Try out their configuratorat the link belowand build your cablesexactly how you want them.(upbeat music)The Thinkpad X1 Titaniumis equipped with the first proper trackpadusing Sensel's force touch technology,which is a completely newway for touchpads to workand allows you to dosome really cool things,like operate the touchpad flawlesslywith a big winter glove on.But, before we can really appreciatehow revolutionary this tech is,we need a short history lesson.Resistive touchpads weremost popular in early laptopsand they operate by havingtwo conductive layersseparated by some insulating pads.When your finger touches the touchpad,it deforms and completes the circuitbetween the top and bottom layers.The resistance in the circuitis then measured by four sensorson the edge of the trackpadto figure out where your finger is.And while this method is pretty goodif your hand is in a glove,that's about all it's good for.Resistive trackpads makethe screen look cloudy,they suffer from poor accuracyand, they generally only have supportfor a single touch point.So, perfect for a bus ticket dispenserand not much else today.Now most modern touchpads of touchscreens,are capacitive,and they work on the principlethat your body is a bitelectrically conductive.So basically, below the surface of it thenis a grid of electrodesthat are positivelyand negatively charged.And as your finger comes intocontact with the surface,the charge distribution betweenthese electrodes changes.This is picked up by acircuit in your phoneor your touchpad andturned into the positionof your finger.For more detail on this,check out this video by the Physics Girl.She does a great job ofexplaining the whole chainto go from finger to poop emoji.What's different about Sensel's touchpadis that instead of using theelectricity in your finger,it looks at the force you're applying,and this is achieved using what's calleda force sensing resistor or FSR.FSRs work by having a conductive layer,normally printed silverwith a whole bunch oftightly patched traces.And then above this, is a polymerthat consists of a bunch of super smallelectrically conductive particlessuspended in a non-conductive material.So then as force is applied tothe polymer, compressing it,the electrically conductiveparticles get closer togetherand create a bunch ofdifferent electrical pathwayswhich is essentially a bunchof little short circuitsacross the silver conductor.This changes the resistancemeasured across the conductive filmwhich can be turned into ameasured amount of force.Where it gets really complicated,sorry,this wasn't complicated yet?- Not at all!- Where it gets really complicatedis that none of thosetiny conductive particlesever actually touch each other.So then, how do they short?I'm so glad you asked.As a force is applied to the FSR,the chances of quantum tunnelingbetween these particles increases,which increases the chances of electronshippity-hopping betweenthe conductive particlesdecreasing the resistance of the FSR.- So, quick note about that,we talked to the guys overat Sensel after the shootand they said that experts in the fielddon't agree on the exactmechanism of how FSRs work.Only committing to say,\"I prefer to think of itsimply as conductivity changingas contact area between the FSR layerand the electrodes changeson a microscopic scale.\"So, don't trust everythingyou read on Wikipedia kids,they're paid off by big quantum.- Now those of you in thescience and maker crowdswill probably know thatFSRs are nothing new,but to be used in a touchpad,they need to be much smallerand way more accuratethan traditional FSRs.And Sensel was able to achieve thisby making each FSR just one millimeter.So that means there are alot of freaking four sensorsin even a small trackpad like this one,nearly 6,000 by our rough count.What this translates toin the real world thenis exceptional tracking accuracy.I mean, think about it this way,what gives you a more detailed picture?Lots of megapixels, orjust a few megapixels?Okay, it's a bit morecomplicated than that.But, the basic idea applies,because on traditionalcapacitive touchpads,each electrode is a whoppingfour millimeters apart,and, as you're moving,sliding your finger aroundfrom one electrode to the next,the electrical signal that's outputtedis super non-linear,greatly reducing the trackpad's accuracy.So to combat this,a whole bunch of complicated tuninghas to be applied to the trackpadto make your fingers movements accurate.That's why Apple's trackpadsbecause they spend somuch time on this step.But with Sensel's FSRs,the raw output from thetrackpad is already really good.Now, you might be thinking, oh yeah Apple,don't they already havethis whole pushing downon trackpads thing figured out?Well, no.3D touch, rip,used capacitive sensorsthat detected the distancebetween the front glass andthe backlight in your phone.And as for force touch,well there, Apple's just usinga regular capacitive touchpad,then, they're simulatingthe feel of a clickusing two solenoidsplaced below its surface.So you press down and they vibrate a bitto give you somedelightful haptic feedback.And, this is cool,Sensel has an ingeniousanswer to that as well.What they realized was thatthey're already printing a PCB.So on a layer below all the FSRs,they could just print a big old coil,and with the help of somemagnets below the touchpad,the whole thing turns into a speaker.For more information onhow exactly that works,you can check out ourvideo on \"Voice Coils.\"But there are two main advantagesof doing haptics this way,first, it's much cheaperthan adding solenoidsafter the fact,and second, the wholething is super small.The Z height of Sensel's trackpadis only three millimeters.So by using both the forcedata and the voice coil,the level of tuning that's possibleon a touchpad like this, is staggering.We're killing two birdswith one stone here,getting in a webcam test forthe Thinkpad X1 Titanium.I'm in the Sensel's configurator,and there's a whole bunch ofstuff that we can change here.So why don't we try thecrisp click pre-set.Oh!It almost feels like a mouse switch.It has a sound to it,which I guess makes sense,it has a speaker.That's crazy!It actually feels likeit's moving further down,'cause it's like a click, click,instead of like a tick!Okay, you can even hear thedifference in the sound.Hold on, I'll try and get thisup to the microphone here.Okay.Check this out, David, can you hear this?Here's deep click.It feels that different.And then, if you wanna get really crazy,get really crazy time,you can actually tune it yourself.I wanna change it to 500 grams of force.Oh yeah, 500 gram deep click.Oh man!That's, no, that is not necessary.Okay.Okay.Go down 28 grams of force.Oh!It almost feels like getting like zapwith electric (indistinct) or whatever.Like you just touch itand it's like, Oh, hey,hi, how are you doing?That's the kind of technology advancementthat just puts a smile on your face.But, there is one problem withusing a purely FSR trackpad,it can be a little on the expensive side.So you will see some PCs adopt this techlike the Thinkpad X1 Titanium.But Sensel knows that most of theseare gonna end up inindustrial and medical deviceswhere accurate tracking throughgloves is a requirement.The good news though, isthat this trackpad hereactually uses a combination of FSRand traditional capacitive touch,and it still great.Now I wasn't able to getexact details on how it worksbecause the patent is still going through,but Sensel was able tosay that they appliedthe same principles thatallowed them to shrink downtheir FSRs to their capacitivetouchpad electrodes,and they got them downto one millimeter as wellto improve accuracy.Then, they added some FSRgoodness around the outsides.So what we've got here is a two-layer PCBwhere the top one is aconventional capacitive touchpad,and then the second one is a ring of FSRswith a voice coil in the center.This kind of integration is only possiblewhen a single supplier iscreating every part of the stack.Since as you can probably imagine,turning on a voice coilisn't great for the accuracyof capacitive touch if you'renot able to compensate for it.Which brings us to the big question then:Should you buy theThinkpad X1 Titanium today?Well, it's complicated.The tracking, pooh!Absolutely exceptional!See you later synaptics,is that what they're called?- Yeah.- But, sometimes inlife, size does matter,and this is one of those situations.So you get all the benefitsof an FSR-based touchpad,it works great with a gloveor even if it's a bit wet,but Lenovo possibly dueto the prohibitive costonly gave us three and a half inches.It also uses a third party haptic solutionso the click detail isn't the sameas on our standalone engineeringsample trackpad here.But we're still superbullish on this technology.Sensel said they're alreadyworking with a bunch of OEMsto bring their trackpadsinto more laptops,and it is not an overstatement to saythat this will change how weinteract with our computers.For instance, with this technology,it would be possible to make a touchpadthat goes all the way acrossthe bottom of a laptop.So palm rejection is wayeasier using force data,or, you could make laptops,to integrate some of the cool stuffthat we checked out in ourrecent \"Sensel Morph\" video,like modular slap on magnetic interfacesor unlimited macro buttons.The added functionality of the voice coilcould also add another dimension,like, you could have differentfields for different buttonsor, if you're turning them on or off,or, a different click ifyou have an invalid entryon a form,or, you could have itdo a celebratory buzzif you buy something on lttstore.com,like this great looking stealth hoodie.So bottom line, laptop makers,if you haven't done it yet,get in touch with these guys.Get it?Because every othertrackpad feels terriblenow that I've used it.Just like every othersponsor Segway feels terribleonce you've had mine.Get the best prices and best selectionon computer hardware andeverything else technologyat any one of Micro Center's 25 locationsacross the United States.Check out the MicroCenter custom PC builderif you wanna spec out thebest PC for your budget.It'll you ensure allyour parts are compatibleand available at the nearestMicro Center location,and you just add it to your cartand arrange same day in-store pickup.For a fee, you can alsocheck the box markedsame day pro assembly,and Micro Center's expert technicianswill assemble the PC for you.If you want help decidingwhat parts to putin your new custom gaming PC,just join the new onlineMicro Center community.It's a great place to discuss techwith other enthusiasts.Also as a final, but wait, there's more,see the link in the descriptionfor a free pair of wirelessBluetooth headphones.(indistinct) over is necessary.If you guys enjoyed this videoand you're looking foranother total nerd out video,then check out how motherboardswork Turbo Nerd edition.I guarantee you will learn something,unless you're like build (indistinct)or Stephen Gamers Nexus or something.\n"