Technology Review - Published By MIT
Advertisement

Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons

Continued from page 1

By Kate Greene

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

smaller text tool iconmedium text tool iconlarger text tool icon
Building blocks: A top layer of acrylic has shapes corresponding to different buttons cut out of it. A passage into an air chamber below allows air to flow in and out.
Credit: Chris Harrison, Scott Hudson

Because the system is pressurized, the pressure information can itself be used as an input, Harrison says. For example, if the screen were used to control an MP3 player, a person could press a button harder to scan through radio stations or songs faster. While many touch-screen displays can also register different levels of pressure, the glass or rigid plastic used doesn't provide any tactile feedback.

Rob Miller, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, says that this type of interface is particularly likely to find its way into car dashboards. "When you're driving a car, you're situationally impaired," he says. "Your eyes need to be on the road, not hunting for the right button and watching whether you pressed it right."

In a small user study involving the Carnegie Mellon display, testers found the pneumatic buttons as easy to use as static ones while taking a simulated driving test. They also glanced at the pneumatic buttons only as often as they glanced at the physical buttons.

Due to its pneumatic nature, the system is currently fairly large, but Harrison says that he is trying to find ways to shrink it. "You can't get a pump inside a cell phone," he says, "but one possibility is to have a balloon and squeeze it using a conventional motor."

Comments

Log In

Forgot your password?     Register »
Advertisement

Videos

The Marcellus Shale Gas Rush
Technology Review November/December 2009

Current Issue

Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map
The United States has vast supplies of this cleaner fossil fuel. But how should we use it?
Featured Content
Sponsored by:
White Papers

Twelve ways to reduce costs with SQL Server 2008
Find out how to reduce costs and get more efficient

Download

Total Economic Impact of SQL Server 2008 Upgrade
Forrester reports on increasing productivity and management capabilities

Download 

Achieving Cost and Resource Savings with UC
How Office Communications Server R2 and Exchange Server can make your business smarter and more efficient

Download 

The Compelling Case for Conferencing
Read how you can improve workload support and find IT efficiencies

Download

How Windows Server 2008 R2 Helps Optimize IT and Save you Money
Read how you can improve workload support and find IT efficiencies

Download

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Live Migration
See how Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V enable virtualization and Live Migration

Download
Advertisement
Subscribe to Technology Review's daily e-mail update. Enter your e-mail address

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
Advertisement
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2009 Technology Review. All Rights Reserved.