Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Researchers Develop New Tactile Technology That Could Enable a Pop-Up Keyboard on a Flat Smartphone Display
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Show me swyping to compete with 120 wpm touch typing.
Bigger problem is how much impact it will have on display performance.
You will never see this technology in a production iPhone or iPad.
You will never be able to use this with glass.
The fluid makes the device heavier and will take up way too much volume.
This might be somewhat feasible in an external keyboard or folding detachable keyboard, but who wants to press super mushy keys like these? Proper keyboards need crisp, tactile feedback. Not this garbage.
And if you want to animate a button or something going up and down, just animate it in software. You can make some really convincing animations these days. Like Apple’s faux holographic effect with Apple Cash. Or the skeuomorphic metal dials they’ve done in the past.
Does the keyboard on the iPhone suck? Would it be faster if you had to press in on each button? I don’t understand the problem trying to be solved here.
You will never be able to use this with glass.
The fluid makes the device heavier and will take up way too much volume.
This might be somewhat feasible in an external keyboard or folding detachable keyboard, but who wants to press super mushy keys like these? Proper keyboards need crisp, tactile feedback. Not this garbage.
And if you want to animate a button or something going up and down, just animate it in software. You can make some really convincing animations these days. Like Apple’s faux holographic effect with Apple Cash. Or the skeuomorphic metal dials they’ve done in the past.
Does the keyboard on the iPhone suck? Would it be faster if you had to press in on each button? I don’t understand the problem trying to be solved here.
Good for us old timers, but for the kids coming up who have only ever known tapping or swiping away on flat pieces of glass, it’s hard to imagine this ever coming to an iPhone.
Researchers in the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon this week highlighted a breakthrough in display technology that could make future screens more tactile through raised haptics. As noted by TechCrunch, the Future Interfaces Group shared a video and a research paper demonstrating a display that can grow small, physical bumps that can be felt under the fingers.
The technology could be used for tactile notifications, a pop-up keyboard that feels different under the fingers than the standard screen, buttons that remain inflated until pressed, pop-up custom-shaped buttons for controlling system functions, and more. One of the concepts demonstrated includes a pop-up music interface that displays raised music controls for playback, while another features a button on a smartphone that pulses up and down until it's pressed.
Researchers developed a flat panel that's using miniaturized hydraulic pumps to raise the surface through fluid. Each pump is individually controllable and can be activated separately to create dynamic, tactile bumps in a compact form factor.
The hardware is self-contained, lightweight, relatively slim at 5mm, and able to withstand the force of a normal touchscreen interaction.
At the current time, this is emergent technology that's owned by Carnegie Mellon, but it isn't hard to imagine future smartphones that use this kind of functionality. Apple has adopted haptic vibrations for touch-based feedback that's used for notifications and other system feedback, but raised haptics would add another dimension to the display.
Apple could use this kind of technology for a device that folds flat but has a pop-out keyboard when in use, plus there are likely multiple accessibility use cases for those who have sight problems. It's impossible to say whether this is functionality that we will see in Apple devices in the future, but it is an interesting concept.
Article Link: Researchers Develop New Tactile Technology That Could Enable a Pop-Up Keyboard on a Flat Smartphone Display
Check the Nokia patents for haptics, over 10 or more years ago. Those are really next-level haptic interfaces, not the children's versions that Apple gives us under fancy names. And we are still 15 years, at least, from seeing them if we rely in Apple. Even foldable iphone or ipad are yeeeeeaaaars from now when they are old news in other brands. Apple should be strongly penalized for stagnating innovation by buying and killing innovative but small competitors.
Researchers in the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon this week highlighted a breakthrough in display technology that could make future screens more tactile through raised haptics. As noted by TechCrunch, the Future Interfaces Group shared a video and a research paper demonstrating a display that can grow small, physical bumps that can be felt under the fingers.
The technology could be used for tactile notifications, a pop-up keyboard that feels different under the fingers than the standard screen, buttons that remain inflated until pressed, pop-up custom-shaped buttons for controlling system functions, and more. One of the concepts demonstrated includes a pop-up music interface that displays raised music controls for playback, while another features a button on a smartphone that pulses up and down until it's pressed.
Researchers developed a flat panel that's using miniaturized hydraulic pumps to raise the surface through fluid. Each pump is individually controllable and can be activated separately to create dynamic, tactile bumps in a compact form factor.
The hardware is self-contained, lightweight, relatively slim at 5mm, and able to withstand the force of a normal touchscreen interaction.
At the current time, this is emergent technology that's owned by Carnegie Mellon, but it isn't hard to imagine future smartphones that use this kind of functionality. Apple has adopted haptic vibrations for touch-based feedback that's used for notifications and other system feedback, but raised haptics would add another dimension to the display.
Apple could use this kind of technology for a device that folds flat but has a pop-out keyboard when in use, plus there are likely multiple accessibility use cases for those who have sight problems. It's impossible to say whether this is functionality that we will see in Apple devices in the future, but it is an interesting concept.
Article Link: Researchers Develop New Tactile Technology That Could Enable a Pop-Up Keyboard on a Flat Smartphone Display
This is NOT new!
This has been shown on a clear surface some 12 years ago!!!
Very interesting. The existing pop up keyboard on iPad and iPhone could be so much better if it was some kind of translucent overlay rather covering like a third of the screen.
No, that wasn't the point.
People generally loved and preferred physical keys over touch screen keys. It's why your laptop keyboard hasn't been replaced by a touch screen.
It's just that the physical keys were always there in the way even when you didn't need them and because they were solid, they couldn't morph to different apps and circumstances the way touch screen controls can.
This technology is an attempt to have an all glass tab but a tactile keyboard when you need it.
Color me skeptical that it will ever see the light of day, but the motive behind this is obvious.
It'd be really interesting to see this tech used as a braille e-book for the blind/ partially sighted.
Agreed .. would make a wonderful aid to those visually impaired and an amazing braille e-reader! But I can’t see a real use for me. That’s not to say there isn’t one.
I was thinking about something like that 5-10 years ago but doubted it is possible to make it and see i was wrong but we have still long way in front of us.