Providing Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons on a Visual Display

Providing Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons on a Visual Display

Chris Harrison Scott E. Hudson

This paper discusses work by the authors to create a simple and versatile system for dynamic buttons on visual displays. Their system involves the use of a malleable latex membrane that can be backlit to act as a screen, a vacuum to distort the latex and a backing that is used to create specific shapes with the distorted latex. The purpose of this interface is to add an element of physical feedback and interaction to touch screens.

While adding their system to generally static touchscreens can be useful in many specific applications (such as car interfaces, ATM pin pads etc.) the lack of dynamism limits its use in my opinion. They make the point that the backing is easy to produce and change, making it simple to create new physical interfaces for systems. However, this is not truly dynamic and almost defeats the purpose of using touch screens for interaction (that interaction can be defined programmatically to support a variety of activities). If you are presented with a "dynamic" pin pad interface, there is only so many different activities you can map onto a pad with 3 rows of 3 buttons, even if those buttons could be enabled or disabled separately.

In spite of these reservations, I feel this could be a significant boon to some of the applications suggested in this paper, specifically car dashboards and control panels. These interfaces do not need to be too dynamic and are significantly easier and safer to use when they can be operated by touch instead of sight. This system combines the advantages of physical interfaces with some of the dynamic ability of touch display systems.