( CNN ) -- Touch technology has come a long way in the last decade . Just six years ago , most phones used traditional keypads ; today , almost all smartphones have a touchscreen , and the technology has spread to tablets , handheld consoles and laptops as well . One thing still lacking in touchscreens , though , is any kind of sensory feedback ; you can not feel the keypad on your iPhone , nor the action buttons when you play a game on your Android tablet . You ca n't feel the icons on your home screen , or the texture of your photos . Over the next decade all this looks set to change with the emergence of new tactile or `` haptic '' devices . One new technology announced this month by the research wing of the Walt Disney Company allows users to feel textures on a touchscreen , pointing to a future where you will be able to use your phone not only to see and hear , but also to feel . Ivan Poupyrev , the Principle Research Scientist at Disney 's Interaction Group , told CNN that in his view the future will see `` touch screens on mobile devices , tablets , laptops , tables and walls . Everything will be touch-sensitive in the future and we need tactile feedback to make it more useful and usable . '' As well as making screens you can feel , Disney Research is also developing tactile equipment that does n't require any actual contact at all -- like an Xbox Kinect , but where you feel as though you can touch objects in front of you in thin air . The device is called the `` Aireal '' and in its developers ' words it provides `` interactive tactile experiences in free air . '' The Aireal works by blowing small rings of air at a user to simulate touch , movement or collisions with objects . Students at the University of Bristol in England are working on a similar project called UltraHaptics , which gives the same sense of mid-air feeling through ultrasound vibrations rather than pulses of air . According to its inventors , UltraHaptics deploys `` ultrasonic transducers '' to produce a variety of different sensations on the skin -- basically using sound waves to simulate touch . Poupyrev says UltraHaptics is an interesting idea that , in his view , points to the future of touch devices : `` I love this work -- ( it is ) very well done . In general creating tactile feedback in free air is a very important research direction . '' Other products under development use tactile feedback in completely different ways . A new sound device called the Woojer aims to immerse users in sound by using low frequency vibrations to create the physical sensation of bass -- rather like being in a loud cinema or standing in front of a speaker at a rock concert . The Tactus takes a different approach to bringing feeling to a touchscreen by creating real , physical buttons that emerge from the screen to emulate a physical keyboard . Another new invention , the Tacit , aims to provide physical feedback to help visually impaired people navigate by `` feeling '' the objects around them . The device attaches to the wrist and uses ultrasound to scan the immediate area , delivering soft pressure to the user 's wrist as they get close to objects . If these inventions go into production , then Poupyrev 's projected future of tactile devices begins to look so close ... you could almost touch it . Jenny Soffel contributed to this article .
Researchers are working on allowing you to ' feel ' objects in mid - air . Current technology uses bursts of air , with students experimenting with them . New touchscreens also offer user feedback . Inventions point to a future where you can feel technology in new ways .