I can feel my D-Pad!! Haptic Tactile Feedback in future iPhone?

[Prab]

Saw this (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/02/haptic-feedback-fingerprint-identification-and-rfid-tag-readers-in-future-iphones/) on macrumors:

The proposed solution is the adoption of "haptic" display technologies which allow for some tactile feedback from touch screen displays. Apple proposes including a grid of piezoelectronic actuators that can be activated on command. By fluctuating the frequency of these actuators, the user will "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across it. As an example, a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency as the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it.

What do you guys think about how this affects gaming?

Would D-Pads work better, etc?

[Hodapp]

What I'm curious of is how this will work with something like an iPhone which has glass covering the actual LCD and touch screen components.

[Kamazar]

Some of the LG touch phones are like this. If the vibrations aren't subtle, it gets annoying as hell. Still don't think anything beats physical controls, simply because of the fact that you can have better control over a 3D object than a 2D one. This would definitely be an improvement if done right, though.

[Prab]

What I'm curious of is how this will work with something like an iPhone which has glass covering the actual LCD and touch screen components.
Yeah... Not to mention the screen protectors people use for their iDevices. Theres going to be so many layers above this piezoelectronic grid.

Apple has a lot of thinking to do. This will probably not see the light of day for another 2 or more years. But its interesting though, the final goal would be to actually feel the presence of a button/widget on screen, not just to feel vibrations if something is there.