Communications of the ACM
nflattening Touch-Screen Buttons
Ever wish the flat touch screen buttons on your phone felt more like physical buttons?
Chris Harrison and Prof. Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon have developed a simple technology that turns touch-screen buttons into physical buttons by using pneumatics.
The technology consists of a flexible surface area with a hard backing that acts as a mask for the button shapes. An air chamber behind the backing can be pressurized or depressurized using pneumatic technology, in this case fan-based pumps.
When positive pressure is applied, the buttons pop out. When the pressure is neutral, the screen is flat. When negative pressure is applied, the buttons pop inwards.
Images are displayed on the surface using a projector behind the device, turning the surface into a display screen.
Button presses are detected using an infra-red camera pointed at the front of the screen that detects reflections of light from a fingernail.
When your fingernail gets close to the screen, a button press is recorded.
From SciTe Daily
View Full Article
No entries found