3D Press: a new way to interact

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2016-04-22 17:08

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On April 13th, Meizu released it's latest interactive technology on PRO 6 launch event: 3D Press.

But what is 3D Press?

“3D Press is a brand-new way to interact with your phone. Different from the traditional clicking and flicking gestures, the Meizu PRO 6 can register differences in pressing force on the screen in real time and then call the corresponding preview results and hotkey functions. This technology not only improves the operation efficiency, but also makes more interactions between human and machine possible. Furthermore, the 3D Press technology also brings you tactile vibration feedback in addition to visual changes.” --- from official Meizu website.

 
On the launching event, we can see that the screen can sense the intensity of the user's touch. And what makes 3D Press more useful is that by pressing the screen, users can preview picture or website link, use the most-frequently used functions of an app, and what's more, the SDK of 3D Press is now open to all developers, more apps will be using this feature and facilitate users' usage.

I'm sure you were wondering: how does it work?

Traditionally, a capacitive screen has a capacitive sensing module which contains two layers of mutually perpendicular ITO conducting circuit modules. These two modules resemble X-axis and Y-axis, and when a finger touches the screen, the capacitance on the touch spot will be changed. The controller in the screen will calculate the change, and locate the spot according to this X and Y axises, thus a screen-touching action is completed.
To achieve pressure sensing on the screen, the engineers added a row of pressure sensors between display module and metal supporting board of the screen. It's like adding a Z-axis so the touch pressure can be sensed in 3 dimensions. As a result, everytime user presses on the screen, the sensor will be slightly bended to respond the touch, meanwhile it detects the interspace between display module and supporting board and react in an instant, accurate and consistent manner. This react generates a microvibration feedback through internal motor. This 3-dimension data helps users achieve 3D Press.

 

To think about it, 3D Press changed the way to interact with our phones because in the past, our touch only impacts the screen in 'position' and 'width'; however, now our touch can actually impact on the 'depth' of our screen. This brings a vast new possibilities to our daily usage of the phone. Just imagine, in the future, you can use this feature to play piano games where the games can actually capture the intensity of your fingers' touch, just like a real piano. Or you can use this feature to achieve accelerate, break and stop action in a car-racing game. Or, when you're using painting apps, the stroke of your painting can be light or deep-colored according to your finger's touch intensities.

Sounds amazing, and ... a little difficult to visualize, right? Let's see a gif to feel the real 3D Press:

 

Impressed, right? What do you think is the most practical usage of 3D Press?



Tags:3d press, pro6, pro 6