KDDI haptic smartphone prototype

From Engadget:

>>Surprisingly, the feedback was effective to the point that we could even feel the ridges on the virtual keypad -- KDDI's ambition with this is to allow the partially-sighted to touch-type (presumably alongside some UI visual aid as well), while everyone else can also benefit from preemptive hyperlink selection in the web browser with the help of fine haptic feedback, thus reducing the chances of hitting the wrong links (see the video below). We were also impressed by the pressure sensor on the touch layer that enabled a "soft punch" input and a "hard punch" input in the demo game, so you can imagine the possibilities with even more layers implemented; except the prototype we saw was already bulky enough. Regardless, as far as availability is concerned there's no info just yet, though this technology is currently patent pending.