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Letter: Touchy telephones

Published 6 April 2005

From Tom Shannon

I very much enjoyed your review of the current developments in tactile communication devices (26 February, p 28). Considering how much of our brains are devoted to touch it’s surprising how long it has taken tactility to enter telecommunications.

When I patented the first system for tactile telephone communications back in 1973 I imagined it would soon become a common experience. Now the added assurance of palpable sensation, often thought of as the best test of “reality”, appears to have found its home generation. And probably the question of what is real will deepen.

New York, US

Issue no. 2494 published 9 April 2005

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