Hasta La Gadget!

What if you could take the almost infinite re-configurability of a touch-screen and marry it to the tactile, no-looking-needed interface of the old-fashioned button? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon university have done just that, using what at first looks like a big, flat balloon:

The display is made up of several layers, the topmost of which is a latex sheet. Below that lies a sheet of acrylic with holes cut in it where the buttons are to go. Pumping air in and out of the device causes the buttons to expand and stick out (or get sucked in, like an inny belly-button). And because the latex is translucent, images can be rear-projected onto these “buttons”.

It’s not quite as configurable as a touch-screen, as the design is limited to where you place the button-holes (ha!). But the rear projection offers a fair degree of on-the-fly customization and the moving buttons could prove very helpful in, say, a car where you don’t want to take your eyes from the road. Optical sensing tech inside means that there is also multi-touch functionality. Try that with a regular keypad. Finally, the semi-3D images that can be laid onto the buttons, like the global map in the clip, are just plain rad.

Next For Touchscreens: Temporary Pop-Up Buttons? [Pop Mech]