Experimental Touchscreen Has Physical Buttons That Can Pop Up
source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/prototype-display-combines-touchscreen-morphing-buttons/
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- Gregsalter
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People who own BlackBerry and iPhones might argue endlessly about which keyboard is better, but a new prototype display could bridge their divide: It combines touchscreen technology with physical buttons that appear or disappear, depending on the application.
Two students at the Carnegie Mellon University have developed a screen with three functions of pop-up buttons and keypads can appear and disappear, the user can touch input and the screen can render graphics.
“It is rare to be able to do all three in a single display,” says Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. researcher at the Human Computer Interaction lab at the university. Harrison, along with Scott Hudson, published a paper last month explaining how the displays would work.
“It is tough to create a physically deformable surface that can still do graphics pretty well,” he says.
It is a “thought provoking” project that plays into the emerging field of dynamic tactile displays, says Johnny Lee, a researcher at Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, who read Harrison’s paper early on but otherwise not connected with the research. “It’s a really, really interesting and stimulating idea,” he says.
“As humans we are very tactile individuals,” says Lee. “Touch is our primary sense as we navigate the world but touchscreens don’t allow us to use it.”
Many users still prefer physical buttons Despite the popularity of touchscreens. Physical buttons offer a low-attention way of interacting with display and they are especially useful in situations where users don’t want to completely concentrate on a task on the screen, such as in cars, drivers have to take their eyes off the road to change the volume on a radio with a touchscreen. Physical buttons, especially if they could change dynamically depending on task, would let the driver touch something and keep her eyes on the road, says Harrison.
Two students at the Carnegie Mellon University have developed a screen with three functions of pop-up buttons and keypads can appear and disappear, the user can touch input and the screen can render graphics.
“It is rare to be able to do all three in a single display,” says Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. researcher at the Human Computer Interaction lab at the university. Harrison, along with Scott Hudson, published a paper last month explaining how the displays would work.
“It is tough to create a physically deformable surface that can still do graphics pretty well,” he says.
It is a “thought provoking” project that plays into the emerging field of dynamic tactile displays, says Johnny Lee, a researcher at Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, who read Harrison’s paper early on but otherwise not connected with the research. “It’s a really, really interesting and stimulating idea,” he says.
“As humans we are very tactile individuals,” says Lee. “Touch is our primary sense as we navigate the world but touchscreens don’t allow us to use it.”
Many users still prefer physical buttons Despite the popularity of touchscreens. Physical buttons offer a low-attention way of interacting with display and they are especially useful in situations where users don’t want to completely concentrate on a task on the screen, such as in cars, drivers have to take their eyes off the road to change the volume on a radio with a touchscreen. Physical buttons, especially if they could change dynamically depending on task, would let the driver touch something and keep her eyes on the road, says Harrison.
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@sarahebourne on twitter says "It seems this tech has promise for affordable, portable Braille displays #accessibility #a11y"
- 3 years ago
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