9 ms·
Buttons that morph out of the surface of the device.
- Palomides 14y agoI don't see any info on how it works? the website is just justifications for tactile interaction
- akavi 14y agoJudging by the video, it looks like the layout of the buttons is fixed, only their presence is toggleable. If so, that's a bit of a bummer.
- earbitscom 14y agoA bummer. Now, that is classic. I remember using public payphones just a little over a decade ago. One time some kids had put Vaseline on the earpiece. That was a fun time. Now we have a phone in our pocket that we can talk to and have it do nearly anything. By next year, it will have buttons when we want and no buttons when we don't. Vaseline on your ear is a bummer. This button-no-button stuff is not a bummer.
- utlanning 14y agoI think your post was tongue-in-cheek, and it is maybe one of my favorite HN posts ever. That said, I get a little bummed that there are no Back to the Future 2-style hoverboards, that I don't have a personal flying car, and that I still have to shower every day. I'd love a polymorphic phone screen, and am bummed that this display isn't that. Just out of curiosity, I rubbed some Vaseline in my ear just now, and must admit that it is more of a bummer than the lack of polymorphic phone screens. "Everything is amazing, and nobody's happy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
- mieubrisse 14y agoI had similar sentiments as the OP. I feel I was just humbled in about the most effective way possible.
- _delirium 14y agoI think you might have to go 20 years to find that kind of difference. A decade ago, at least among the techie Americans that are the typical HN reference point, we had PalmPilot smartphones. Now we have some other brand of smartphones. Soon to have magical buttons, but otherwise not that huge of a revolution. The #1 thing to do with them a decade ago was to browse Google Maps and restaurant-review sites while away from a computer. Guess what the #1 thing to do with them in 2012 is?
- GiraffeNecktie 14y agoWe definitely were NOT browsing Google maps on our smartphones a decade ago.
- majormajor 14y agoThe earliest I had Google (or any) maps on my phone was 6 years ago.
- Ogre 14y agoI had a phone with a terrible web browser, a tiny screen, and ridiculous charges for bandwidth before that. MapQuest likely had a terrible mobile site for it to talk to. I think it's likely that I theoretically had maps on my phone 8, 9, or even 10 years ago. In practice though, I didn't have them until June 2007.
- _delirium 14y agoMaps worked fine on the Palm. Not as nice as today's maps, but they were sufficient. Also, Sprint introduced a reasonably priced uncapped plan around 2002 or 2003 or so, coinciding with the introduction of one of the Treo models, so there wasn't really a data-charges problem. In fact, the data plans got worse for a period later in the decade. There was a time in the late-2000s when Sprint re-introduced per-MB bandwidth charges, except that Palm phones were grandfathered in on the old plan, so you got unlimited data on Palm, but not on anything else. It's true that uptake has increased over the last decade, though. Partly due to product improvements, but I think largely due to cultural changes.
- saulrh 14y agoIt's a bit of a bummer because it's trivial and boring. It almost looks like it's just a touchscreen with pockets on the front that you blow compressed air into. The fact that this is getting so much attention - and the fact that it's wasting some of our time in the process - is kind of annoying.
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- koeselitz 14y agoThere are millions of people now who carry around little extraneous keyboards with their iPads - and probably millions more who don't buy iPads or any other touch device because they really don't like typing when they can't touch-type. Maybe that seems like a trivial problem, but any gap in the market keeping people from devices is generally a gap worth working to close.
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- sanjiallblue 14y agoI feel like people like you complained when the first computers were invented because they were slow. This is haptic technology progressing and just the fact that it's getting major media attention is amazing since on-demand haptic feedback is the biggest presence missing from digital technology. Touch is just such a fundamental part of the human experience that anything that advances the technology that gets us to that implementation should be celebrated and here you are declaring it annoying? It boggles the mind...
- saulrh 14y agoThis isn't a prototype computer. This is a prototype relay that can only open. If they'd given their engineers just two more months they'd have been able to show off a grid of pixels - something that would work in multiple orientations with arbitrary UI elements. Show me the full relay and an adder and I'll be happy.
- wtracy 14y agoYou should still be able to dynamically change the symbols printed on those buttons. This still looks exciting to me. :-)
- JumpCrisscross 14y agoEven if you couldn't have overlapping pre-determined button fields for the dialer, apps, browser, etc., just having the keyboard, even in one configuration, would still be highly functional.
- joering2 14y agoFuturistic version in next 10 years definitely will have a layer of micro-bubbles like a LCD matrix where you could programatically create shapes. I would guess the biggest challenge would be how to send air/fluid to particular chambers. creating channels would require 3D modelling, which means there would be certain thickness involved. Needless to say, a touch of real buttons is something I truly miss sometimes (switching from Blackberry to iPhone). Kudos to someone (tactus?) that will come up with an iPhone screen shield that will imitate buttons well enough.
- unconed 14y agoThis always happens with technology videos. You can project a flat image onto a transparent screen? Call it a hologram! You can create fixed buttons? Suggest that it morphs into anything.
- Schwolop 14y agoI tend to agree with you on this. It's a great idea, but not an amazing idea. And the reason is simply that we can think of what a better version would look like - polymorphic buttons. I wonder if that's actually a good criteria for defining game changing innovation - that you can't think what a better version would look like.
- reneherse 14y agoI've personally been fantasizing about improved tactile touchscreen features since the iPad came out, but that didn't change the fact that it was a "game changing device". So I suspect that's not a great standard to judge by. The fact is that every step in technology allows you to see farther ahead. To complain that the mountain you stand on isn't as tall as the one it allows you to see is ridiculous.
- Schwolop 14y agoThat's a fair point. In my defence, I'm not complaining about it, just agreeing with the guy I replied to that I was somewhat disappointed. I was then curious why I was disappointed, and wondered whether my rationale was generalisable. It probably isn't.
- altrego99 14y agoWhile I agree, I do completely hope that we will figure out a way to make the buttons dynamic - may be after 1 or 2 generations of this technology.
- kpozin 14y agoHere's a brief article about Tactus: http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064674/tactus-technology-prototype-touchscreen-appearing-disappearing-keys http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064674/tactus-technology-p... Looks like the button locations are fixed for now, but they're hoping to make them adjustable in the future.
- Permit 14y agoThe video can be found here: http://vimeo.com/43431035 http://vimeo.com/43431035 I really dislike the voice-over they have, but that might be personal preference. It just sounds like a regular person imitating a professional voice actor to me.
- OzzyB 14y agoYep, shame they went for the Faux-Matrix-Morpheus voice over.
- jonny_eh 14y agoThat's funny, I thought it was reminiscent of Agent Smith.
- ilaksh 14y agoI think maybe he's actually deliberately going for a little humor.
- calydon 14y agoI know this is a fraud, and it's only because of the voice-over.
- jeremyarussell 14y agoThey have a patent. Generally at that stage fraud isn't a word that comes to mind.
- davydka 14y agoAgreed. The voice-over is bad enough to makes this sound fake.
- anigbrowl 14y agoI am sure the first generation is going to be fraught with problems, but this looks so good that I would badly like to own part of this company. Massive game changer, with the sort of technology I thought to be 5-10 years out. Unqualified thumbs up from me.
- koeselitz 14y agoSame here; it seems like the range of applications is incredibly broad.
- hacknjack 14y agoThis would be a killer feature for me if the buttons had some kind of depression, so I could feel the button before actually pressing it. Without that feature it's just a bumpy touch screen which isn't all that much better than a flat one in my opinion.
- petitmiam 14y agoagreed, feedback is vital
- firefoxman1 14y agoExactly. My first reaction was "Okay, my mind is thoroughly blown." ...then my second thought was "wait, feeling around a bumpy touchscreen will just lead to more accidentally pressed keys unless they don't trigger until they're pressed down"
- geon 14y agoWould the bubble create a non touch sensitive surface, since it is at a distance from the screen? Assuming it can be pressed flat against the glass before the touch screen beneath detects a touch, you have pretty much what you want. There would still be touch sensitive areas between the bubbles, which might be a problem, depending on the app.
- Steko 14y agoReminded me of this recent item: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/05/apple-reveals-wildly-intelligent-multi-tiered-haptics-system.html http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/05/apple-re...
- andrejewski 14y agoVery interesting and a bit scary. Think about it, a screen that can reach out and change its shape. That almost guarantees some (software) application misuse if they are given access to screen control. But on the other hand, gaming would be more interesting with something more to interact with than just what is displayed on screen. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this.
- firefoxman1 14y agoI'll bet one of the first apps to take advantage of this will be a back massager app.
- ThePinion 14y agoThat will probably be the second. The first will undoubtedly involve a penis of some sort/shape.
- solnyshok 14y agoI expect a rogue app, that, upon detecting that phone is laying with its display down, starts to move the phone by imitating snake's muscles. and phone runs for the exit and beyond!
- moe 14y agoI'm afraid it may take a little longer before my phone can safely climb off a table, much less those 5 flights of stairs before it reaches the street... Still, the idea of a million smartphones collectively climbing out of their nightstands at full moon and then crawling towards some supervillain's cave, as fast as their little bubblescreens will carry, is definitely hollywood material!
- rtrocc 14y agoIt kills me how they synced the beats of the intro music to the "morphing" of the buttons...
- samirahmed 14y agoMicrosoft - a company that is making such a big push with touch in Windows 8 should be the most interested in this company. Tactile touch has the ability to transform tablets from casual and convenience devices to the next generation of computers and MS is already betting on touch.
- ilaksh 14y agoCould you take little sections of this stuff, stack them together, and use them as a sort of programmable matter type thing? Maybe if you fold them over or something they could just basically expand and contract. So you expand a bunch in one section to make a feature. Then wrap the whole thing in a very flexible skin. Press a button on a computer, and it morphs between (for example) an alligator shape and a person shape.
- zf1234 14y agoOr it would be cool if you could make a ball shape with a solar power source inside, and it could push itself around and collect energy. It could turn on and off rows of "buttons" to give itself momentum. Throw in a camera for object tracking; or a bright light - you could make little glowing orbs that roll around, float in water etc. Throw a bunch over a wall - they move around and map rooms as a swarm.
- orblivion 14y agoMan, I knew this was coming. I just thought it would be like 5 years from now.
- buq2 14y agoHere is very similar technology: http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/PneumaticDisplays http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/PneumaticDis... Nokia has also done research into this but with little bit different technology: http://c2499022.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/nokia-haptics.pdf http://c2499022.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content...
- kyebosh 14y agoBraille. Can you imagine the world of potential here for our low-vision friends? Dynamic text for signs (seen through something like Google's glass), down to topographical layout of the ground in front of you for navigation... This could really shake things up.
- zacharypinter 14y agoPrediction: Apple buys the company and the proceeds to get every patent they can on this tech.
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- monsterix 14y agoAbsolutely. And then reveal the innovation through some iPhone 6s or something in between? At least that's what they did with Siri.
- jarek 14y agoUnfortunately for them that won't be a lot of patents that would stand up under examination since there's been heavy research in haptic interfaces, and especially haptic touchscreen interfaces for quite a while now. In fact I would be surprised if Apple wasn't doing research into this themselves.
- Codhisattva 14y agoApple filed a patent in March 2012 for a haptic touchsceen. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/22/apples_haptic_touch_feedback_concept_uses_actuators_senses_force_on_iphone_ipad.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/22/apples_haptic_...
- ch0wn 14y agoA lot of the sub pages don't seem to have <title> elements. That seems like an odd oversight.
- reneherse 14y agoThis will be huge for automotive touchscreen applications: I have no doubt it will save lives. With current touchscreen interfaces, you rely almost solely on visual cues and feedback to make correct inputs. Not a good situation while driving, when you need as much visual attention as possible focused on the road. The best interfaces for operating complex or dangerous machines have fixed, haptically identifiable reference points; this allows you to reach out (in the dark or without shifting visual focus) and make some sort of adjustment without fumbling or disturbing your flow. If the touchscreen can be elegantly brought into that realm, so much the better. Tesla Model S 2.0 perhaps? BTW, anyone have an idea of how this technology works? Update: From the article linked below in a comment by kpozin, it's based on hydraulics. Ingenious.
- kiba 14y agoWell, self driving cars will make the safety application moot.
- reneherse 14y agoI'm a big fan of the nascent self driving technology, but vehicles in the first several waves of that revolution will still need a proper human interface. And realistically, I think "dual interface" cars will own the general market (non-taxi, etc) for a long time to come. Anyone who enjoys driving once in a while on a nice piece of road (E.G. the 280 between Daly City and Cupertino) is going to want a car that also features a manual mode. Eventually we'll have cars where a hidden steering wheel unfolds from the dashboard and pedals rise from the floor. And parental controls to prohibit your teen from accessing them ;)
- run4yourlives 14y agoSimilar to kiba's comment below, but perhaps a step in between, it would make sense for car designers to look at other similarly complex machines that require the operator's constant attention to the outside world before innovating blindly. HOTAS (Hands on Throttle and Stick) as a concept has been adopted almost exclusively in fighter aircraft - and extended into Formula 1 and Indy cars as well - for this exact purpose. The modern car dashboard design is beyond stupid, almost criminally so when you start to see 12 inch video screens placed underneath the windscreen in such a way that the driver has to take his attention off the road to use pretty much anything in the car. Tactile feedback isn't going to help much if you are fumbling with controls floating an arms length away between you and the passenger. There is plenty of room on the steering wheel for all of the car's functional controls, especially if you make use of a HUD/windscreen visual menu and multifunction controls. I almost exclusively use my 5 button steering wheel control to manage my entire audio experience while driving right now. I'm not sure how many people will need to be killed before something like that becomes the norm. Of course, seatbelts and airbags both required their fair share of human sacrifice before the car gods decided lowly operators warranted them, so maybe kiba is onto something. :-)
- run4yourlives 14y agoThis is cool, but is there really a demand for this? Didn't we almost universally switch from textured, real buttons to glass interfaces over the last 5 years? Maybe it's just me, but I'm not exactly pining for my old blackberry's keyboard. My display/interface iPhone isn't perfect, but this just isn't a real enough problem for me. Is it for you?
- DavidSJ 14y agoGlass is preferable because it can be reconfigured by software to fit the application, allowing dead-simple, focused interfaces rather than bloated, inflexible catch-all input devices. The tradeoff was the loss of tactile feedback, meaning good luck dialing a number, choosing a song, etc. while driving. Tactile glass would be the best of both worlds.
- koeselitz 14y agoAnd not just driving. Take the iPad, for instance - it's fun and kind of magical, but a lot of us dismiss it because you can't really do "serious" input on it. Even though I really like it, I have to confess that I can't really type that fast, nor is typing comfortable enough to do for very long. But if typing on my iPad were as easy as it is on a chiclet-type keyboard - just a step or two down from my laptop keyboard - then suddenly things would equalize a bit. And what is for many people the major barrier to using a touch device exclusively would disappear.
- anigbrowl 14y agoI don't want to look at the screen all the time, same way that when I type on a real keyboard I don't usually look at the keys (or even the screen some of the time). On tablets, i'd like the feel of a keyboard some of the time (without losing the real estate when I'm not typing), but I'd also really like tactile feedback for music applications, scrolling and stuff like that.
- jachwe 14y agowhy is everybody ranting on this nice technology and ignores the fact that the sites image and css ressources aren't loading?!
- protolif 14y agoThe website appears to be down. Who uses Yahoo for hosting?
- aangjie 14y agoAm I the only one thinking Heart of Gold(Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxiy)?? P.S: I couldn't really reach the page. just the description evokes that memory
- beedogs 14y agoSite hosted on Yahoo and instantly overloaded. This is like reading Slashdot in 1998.
- shahar2k 14y agothe way I see it, physical buttons have two uses one is tactile navigation: the ability to find out what part of the screen you're touching and navigate it without vision. the second use though is activation feedback, a button has to be able to be navigated separately from its activation. unless these protrusions can tell whether they are pressed or not, it still seems useless to have a lumpy touchscreen... so I really hope they found some method of separating simply sliding a finger around searching for a button and realizing when the finger is pressing down... this is the exact same issue as the various touch-mice devices (left click with finger on left side, right click with finger on right side, unless that is you like to REST your fingers while clicking)
- Artagra 14y agoFrom the site: "While touchscreens provide a versatile user experience, they provide no tactile experience for consumers. Vibration haptics and similar solutions try to simulate a sensation of touch, but all are "feedback" technologies, vibrating only after touching the screen (even if they are touched in the wrong place or by mistake). In contrast, Tactus' technology creates real, physical buttons, where users can rest their fingers on the buttons, as on a mechanical keyboard, and input data by pressing down on the keys. Tactus is the only solution to both "orientation" and "confirmation" problems that are inherent in touch screens."
- ajani 14y agoWhat is really exciting about this is that it could potentially be used as an ad hoc surface generator. A basic idea would be to have physical keys on the variety of piano apps available for iOS. An extreme example would be having terrain pop up of the screen in games like "the bard's tale", providing tactile knowledge of the game levels. There isn't much information on the actual implementation on the website, but if you could make the surface depress-able or not depending on the context requirement, then the variety of applications is endless: Think of the blind, being able to use tablets to read with Braille(non depress-able), or the piano idea from above( depress-able).
- waxjar 14y agoThis would be handy to adjust the volume or pause the currently playing track on your smartphone. It always kinda annoyed me that I had to take it out of my pocket to do that. It's a cool technology, but i think it won't be more useful or productive than a regular touch screen. How are you gonna swipe on a bumpy touch screen?
- altrego99 14y agoI have been thinking about this for a while - great to see someone company is actually taking initiative to really build this! I think this will definitely help to bridge the gap between buttoned and touch phones - will tremendously improve your keyboard accuracy on a phone if nothing else.
- bking 14y agoIt is funny to see this because a few years ago in college I mused with the idea of using bubbles for buttons on screens and drew up some plans I had. I didn't have the tech or the time to bring it about, but I am glad someone else has. The issues I came up with was how to build a small pneumatic motor that would fit in a device, not make much noise, work quick, and not drain all the power fast. I hope they can do it becasue tactile feedback would be nice. =)