Sensel

Sensel, a company operating in the advanced human-computer interaction space, was founded in 2013 by Ilya Rosenberg and Aaron Zarraga. The founders leveraged their extensive backgrounds to pioneer the company's core technology; Rosenberg brought his experience from his time at Amazon's Lab126, where he worked on the Kindle e-readers, and Zarraga contributed his expertise in pressure-sensitive input and haptics, honed during his PhD at Stanford University. Their shared vision was to create a touch technology with the sensitivity and nuance of a human fingertip, a goal that led to the development of their proprietary Pressure-Grid technology.

The company's primary business involves designing and supplying high-performance touch, force, and haptics modules for a variety of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Sensel's technology is integrated into products across several markets, including computing, automotive, and creative industries. A key milestone was the launch of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga in 2021, which featured a large, force-sensitive touchpad powered by Sensel, replacing the traditional mechanical click mechanism with a virtual one. This implementation highlights the company's value proposition: enabling thinner device profiles and providing a more uniform and responsive user experience across the entire touchpad surface.

Sensel's business model appears to be twofold. It engages in direct-to-consumer sales with its own product, the Morph, an award-winning, pressure-sensitive multi-touch input device. The Morph allows users to swap out different silicone overlays, transforming its surface for various applications like music production (as a MIDI controller), art creation, or software development. The core of their revenue, however, is likely derived from large-scale enterprise deals and licensing its technology to major brands for integration into their flagship products. For example, the company provides the haptic touchpads for Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio and supplies force-sensing technology for the touchpad in the Framework Laptop 16.

The company's technology combines a high-resolution sensor grid with advanced algorithms to detect not just the position of a touch, but also its force, shape, and orientation. This allows for a richer interaction than standard capacitive touchscreens, enabling actions like pressure-sensitive drawing, nuanced control in professional software, and realistic haptic feedback. This capability to provide detailed pressure information and haptic responses positions Sensel as a key supplier for manufacturers looking to enhance the user interface of their next-generation devices.

Keywords: pressure-grid technology, haptic feedback, force-sensing touchpads, human-computer interaction, pressure-sensitive input, OEM solutions, consumer electronics components, enterprise clients, creative controllers, automotive interfaces