Generating perceptible touch stimulus

1. An apparatus comprising:

a first surface electrode and an arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes;

a display configured to display an image; and

a controller configured to apply a potential difference between the first surface electrode and the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes, and configured to control at least a variation in the applied potential difference in dependence upon the displayed image, wherein the applied potential difference is configured to provide a touch stimulus by modulating a frictional force applied to a digit of a user when the digit, contacting a face of the apparatus, is traced over the face.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the applied potential difference for the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes to attribute different touch stimulus textures to visually different portions of the displayed image.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the applied potential difference to provide to the digit of the user that is traced across the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes a spatially varying touch stimulus, wherein the controlled applied potential difference provides to the digit of the user when it is at a particular location a particular touch stimulus corresponding to a portion of the displayed image that corresponds to the particular location.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the particular location overlies the corresponding portion of the displayed image.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 , wherein, for each different displayed image, a different mapping between digit position and time varying potential difference is used.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein an image is processed to determine its respective mapping between digit position and time varying potential difference.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6 , wherein an image is digitally processed by filtering the image and quantizing the filtered image.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:

process an image to assign a particular touch stimulus to each one of a plurality of non-overlapping image portions; and

determine the manner in which the applied potential difference should be controlled by the controller to achieve the assigned touch stimulus at each image portion when the digit of the user is traced over the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes overlying the displayed image.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a digital camera for capturing the displayed image.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising an output communication interface, wherein the controller is configured to prepare a message for transmission via the output communication interface comprising data defining an image for display; and data assigning different touch stimulus textures to visually different portions of the image.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising an output communication interface, wherein the controller is configured to prepare a message for transmission via the output communication interface comprising data defining an image for display; and data assigning potential differences defining a spatially varying touch stimulus.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to apply a time varying potential difference between at least one second insulated surface electrode and the first surface electrode.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the at least one second insulated surface electrode is configured and the controller is configured to control the time variation of the potential difference to provide to the digit of the user that is traced over the second insulated surface electrode a spatially varying touch stimulus.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes consists of a single second insulated surface electrode.

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes consists of multiple spatially distributed distinct second insulated surface electrodes and wherein the controller is configured to apply a spatially varying potential difference using the first surface electrode and the spatially distributed distinct second insulated surface electrodes.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the controller is configured to control the potential difference to provide to the digit of the user that is traced over the spatially distributed second insulated surface electrodes a spatially varying touch stimulus.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display and the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes are collocated.

18. A method comprising:

displaying an image;

applying a varying potential difference between a first surface electrode of an apparatus and an arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes of the apparatus; and

controlling at least a variation in the applied potential difference in dependence upon the displayed image, wherein the applied potential difference is configured to provide a touch stimulus by modulating a frictional force applied to a digit of a user when the digit, contacting a face of an apparatus, is traced over the face.

19. A method as claimed in claim 18 , comprising controlling the variation of the potential difference to provide to the digit of the user that is traced over at least part of the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes a spatially varying touch stimulus.

20. A method as claimed in claim 18 , comprising controlling the variation of the potential difference for the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes to attribute different touch stimulus textures to visually different portions of the displayed image.

21. A method as claimed in claim 18 , further comprising:

processing an image to assign a particular touch stimulus to each one of a plurality of non-overlapping image portions; and

determining the manner in which the potential difference should be controlled by the controller to achieve the assigned touch stimulus at each image portion when the digit of the user is traced over the arrangement of second insulated surface electrodes overlying the displayed image.

22. A method as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the touch stimulus is perceptible to the user when the digit contacts and is traced over the face, but is not perceptible to the user when the digit contacts and is not traced over the face.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a first surface electrode and a plurality of second insulated surface electrodes distributed over an area;

a controller configured to apply a different potential difference between the first surface electrode and each of the plurality of second insulated surface electrodes and configured to control a spatial variation in the applied potential difference over the area, wherein the applied potential difference is configured to provide a touch stimulus by modulating a frictional force applied to a digit of a user only when the digit, contacting a face of the apparatus, is traced over the face, wherein the touch stimulus spatially varies across the area.

24. An apparatus as claimed in claim 23 , further comprising a display, wherein the spatial variation of the touch stimulus is dependent upon an image displayed in the display.