Link to Tactus Technology website. Who else has seen this? This is the single most awesome thing I have seen this month. As far as I understand from the whitepaper, the Tactus interface is targeted at touchscreen/phone/tablet/etc manufacturers to add the ability to make "buttons" appear and disappear dynamically on a touchscreen. You can read more in the whitepaper available on the site, but the basic idea is that there's a Tactus layer on a touchscreen that controls pressure under certain areas which have very small holes punched in them. When the pressure increases, the flexible top layer of the Tactus layer bulges out creating a "button". When the pressure is released, the top layer settles back down and the "button" disappears. It's really hard to explain what this looks like so watch the videos on the site to get a better picture. I don't believe this is a consumer add-on product since it requires integration with a device's touch system, and the "dynamic button placement" has to be set at manufacturing time. Still, I'm excited to see this come out on tablets/phones. They're supposedly ready for release some time this year too . Are you excited for this? Do you think it'll revolutionize touchscreens? Or do you think it's just another gimmick bound for failure within a year?
And I'd just got used to using a (flat) touchscreen! I think my first cause for concern would be how solid the bumps were - anything that causes the pads of your fingers to ache after too long is doomed to fail because the amount of time I can use the device is crucial. So a softer, more deformable bump would be better than a solid glass-like one. Plus, anything that goes around describing itself as "nanotechnology" is bound to terrify the tin-hat brigade... Undeniably good fun, but less good for sales... Edit: Oh, predictions? Go on then - I think it'll be released too early, flop, and then find it hard to gain popularity after the initial fail. Not the most positive of outlooks, but it seems like the sort of idea with a thin margin between 'revolutionary' and 'downright annoying'.
I think, as it stands, it's not really going to find a hole. It's too rough. It needs refinement. Much like how tablets were around for years before Apple came along with the iPad, they didn't actually do anything new, per say, but the refined the existing ideas and technology and came out with something that changed the market. Technology like this is good in principle but needs a lot of refining before it gains widespread appeal. The main question is: Does it provide more benefits than disadvantages?
That looks great! I hate typing on touch screens, I find it really uncomfortable so if this worked it would be ideal for me.
What will probably happen is all the big players will look at it, say "that's interesting, but nah" then when the company inevitably fails, buy it out and implement it with all their phones.
that's a cool concept. It WOULD make touchscreen devices lady friendly (i.e. useable for people with long fingernails). The devil will be in the detail, though...
I think it'll slowly creep in, its a great idea, but I'd have to try it in practice before I bought anything with it in.
It was actually featured in issue 108 of Custom PC: http://freelance.halfacree.co.uk/2012/07/custom-pc-issue-108/
theres a few questions I haven't seen the answers to regarding this tech: are the buttons "hard"? do they squish when you press them or does the screen feel "solid"? how does the raising of a button/area distort the image of the LCD underneath cost!? (and take my money btw!)
Pretty much all of this is speculation based on the whitepaper: Given the way the buttons are formed by changing the pressure behind the elastic layer, the buttons are as hard as the manufacturer specifies. It even says that the pressure can be customized at manufacturing time. Look at the video and see for yourself. From an angle it distorts the light due to the curvature, but looking straight down doesn't look any different. With their current technology, you're probably never going to actually know what the cost is. This technology is marketed to manufacturers not consumers. It's not just a stick-on screen protector thing, it needs to be integrated into the phone's hardware . The only cost hit you would feel is when you buy a new phone/tablet at a mark-up for the new "Tactus screen technology" it has. That cost would probably vary by manufacturer a bit too, so you'll probably never know ^^.
I actually think this is a really bad idea... I moved from an old numeric keypad Nokia to my Galaxy a little under a year ago and I wouldn't go back anywhere near a phone with buttons. Far far faster without, plus haptic feedback is awesome for letting you know you have actually done something.
I personally love the idea. Tactile feedback is GREAT, and I would put this on every phone in the world...
