The Samsung logo is displayed at the company's headquarters on December 11, 2012 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo : Getty Images/Chung Sung-Jun)
A recently leaked patent filing might have revealed Samsung's plan of developing a technology that is similar to the Force Touch feature found on the new iPhones. Rumors are also claiming that this new technology from Samsung will be integrated on the Galaxy S7 smartphone.
Samsung's patent application was posted on the public domain by the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Based on the filings, Samsung has been working on the idea of a technology similar to that of the Force Touch since April 2014, the month when the filing was registered.
According to GSM Arena, the patent application described the technology as a way to have various software outcomes that depends on how hard a user presses the screen of the device. The pressure is determined by several voltages. The filing shows that if a user presses the letter "a" without applying much pressure, it will output a lowercase letter. On the other hand, pressing harder on the same key will output an uppercase letter.
Another example provided on the patent filing shows a key that when pressed lightly acts as a space bar and when pressed harder acts as a Tab key.
Samsung has yet to announce whether it has finally worked out the theory. Since the filing of the patent application, the South Korean tech giant has not presented any working prototype of its own take on the Force Touch technology.
There are also rumors claiming that Samsung is partnering Synaptics in order to use the latter's extensive patent in the touch interface technology. According to Forbes, Synaptics recently announced the newest addition to its ClearForce touchscreen technology called ClearPad 3700 which can distinguish between hard and light taps.
