When reading about haptics in relation to machines or computer programs, I was reminded of a work that a previous professor of mine did.  Matt Wizinsky, in collaboration with the UIC Innovation Center, created a touch screen that records the depth of the push you are making.  To do this, Matt employed a Microsoft Kinect sensor, to track the change in depth of a taught bedsheet.  The sheet was a surface to be projected on, and also directly touched .  This added an entirely new level of interaction with the interface.  If you wanted to select an object in the back, then you would have to reach farther into the sheet to select it.  There are a wide range of uses for this technology, a few that have already taken advantage of it are Tom Groom’s “Audio Objects”,  and David Mulder’s “Pop
Swipe Cinema: Proposal for Mobile Interactive
Touch-Screen Cinema.”

Touch Cinema from UIC Innovation Center on Vimeo.