I wee, thanks for the clarification. So it really is like a deep press. I can't wait for the reviews to speak on it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What does 3D Touch do that couldn't be accomplished by regular touches of varying lengths?
- Thread starter ryanasimov
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I wee, thanks for the clarification. So it really is like a deep press. I can't wait for the reviews to speak on it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but 3D Touch is not a hardware, but rather a software adjustment that could work on any iPhone if Apple wanted so. This is how it works, in my opinion. When you touch the screen slightly (or as usual), your finger projects a smaller fingerprint area on digitizer than when you press your finger harder or slightly roll it over to any direction, which creates a larger fingerprint on digitizer, which activates the 3D Touch function. That's pretty much the whole "magic" about 3D Touch that can be implemented on any touch-screen device. Or I missed something?
No...it's a special display and the device has the taptic engine under the hood, similar to the Apple Watch.
There are sensors in the display that measure very slight changes in the screen space between two pieces of the display. It is definitely a hardware change.
I think it's a feature that is hard to demonstrate in a video. I suspect it will be something you have to use to really get
Apple didn't implement it that way. There are sensors in the new screen that can detect pressure.
http://www.apple.com/iphone-6s/3d-touch/
Yes I am talking about iPhone. This is iPhone forum, if I was interested in other phones I would be in those forums.
I am vested in Apple system. Have MacBook Pro several iPads, iPods, iPhones, airport, Apple TV. I enjoy the interoperability, the updates, iCloud storage. At this point I won't consider changing everything or sacrificing my cross device interactions because of some other phone's bezel size.
It doesn't make any sense to me to put another extra layer with some transparent pressure sensors between LCD and digitizer instead of just measuring the fingerprint area, but.... I'm no doctor.
Don't get mad, I just clarified for myself, because you presented this futuristic "prototype" like it's something extraordinary and out of this world, but I already experienced it and yes, it was cool at that time, but then I switched back to the phone that has physical buttons rather than on-screen buttons only.
you can't use fingerprint area... what if I used a different finger, or someone has larger hands? Would you have a calibration step?
Also, they can measure the pressure amounts so that ink applications understand a varrying number (I don't know the pressure resolution, 0-63? 0-254?). but games could make use of them. I know the osx apis provide pressure amounts, Im assuming the ios one does too.
Not sure if this has been posted, but found this interesting. Apple's own developer guidelines seem to suggest touch and hold as a viable alternative to 3D Touch.
You are wrong. 3D Touch is hardware. Entirely new screen with extra layer. Why phones weight a tad bit more. It is also software taking advantage of two added commands peek and pop depth with haptic feedback from also new Taptic Engine.
Now we have touch, tap, double tap, long touch, double and triple touch, left swip, right swipe, up swipe, down swipe, peek push with haptic feedback, pop push with longer feedback.
As third party apps adopt more of these, going back to home button/screen will become less and less. See where this is leading? Future elimination/substitution of home button.
Probably doesn't work consistently enough to use in the whole OS, but apps like GarageBand use change in fingerprint area to play keyboard sounds louder or softer depending on how hard you press the keys. It is possible.
The only way to check my theory is to try to roll a finger to any direction to activate "3D Touch" instead of changing pressure and see if that works. Or I will intentionally press harder to select the item, then I will roll over my finger a little bit to a side while reducing the pressure. If that works, then my theory is correct. I'll check it out at the Apple store. When I doubt in something, I have to check that personally.
Nor an engineer. It took Apple design team several years to get this right. Looking at fingerprint size alone adds too much error. Your finger and my finger different print sizes
Your thumb and finger different sizes. Print size changes holding phone upright or upside down. Gravity added subtracted. Is phone or you moving? Changes print size. So accelerometer needs to be involved.
Apple's own ads/info says it best. They had to come up with sensing that read your mind as to intent. A lot harder than looking at print size. From the limited looks after the Apple address by the press, all reports are positive.
With the amount of R&D $ and time invested, this is not some small tweek.
Last edited:
It is not about fingerprint size, it's about fingerprint sizes delta before and after. Take any image editor or paint app. When you want a tiny line, you barely touch the surface of the screen, when you want a bold thick line, you press your finger harder to the surface - I think 3D Touch work the same way, but I will check that to be sure. The reason I doubt is because it could be implemented much easier, no need for extra sensors and stuff. You say fingerprint sizes are different. Yes, but pressure is different as well for different people, isn't it?
There are 96 sensors between the display and the backlight. They basically measure the distance the light is traveling between the two. They pick up on fractions of a millimetre difference, and depending on how big the difference is you get light press (peek) and hard press (pop) or no difference normal touch.
This is far more accurate than trying to measure the footprint size of a fingerprint. From some reports and interviews Apple has been working on this 3D Touch Tech for the last 4-5 years. It's a way more elegant solution that no one else will probably be able to match for a couple years.
Not mad in the least. Apologize if it came across that way. Always trouble with texting, no visual and verbal feedback to help us detect mood or intent. A few years of technology can't negate millions of years of evolution.
Ever interact with a dog. I can tell mood of my Bishon just from tail and ear position. No verbal needed.
Last edited:
but the theory that its only a software upgrade has already been disproven by Apple itself. It is hardware. the Keynote, Apple.com, and every other source related to Apple ad this phone has that information readily available.
3D touch gives you specific feedback when performing an action. From my development/using apps experience it is sometimes difficult to specifically understand the language of a long press. Am I pressing long enough? Did I just press to long and therefore it was inefficient? It is true that pretty much anything at this point that could be done with a long press could be also done with 3D touch, but in my opinion it is a better design language.