A Smartphone Display That ‘Pops Up’ A Physical Keyboard For An Enhanced Tactile Feedback Has Been Developed By Researchers

wccftech.com:

At the most, current smartphone displays have ‘on screen’ keyboards that, when tapped, trigger the small motor in the handset to deliver that tactile feedback. Unfortunately, it is not the same as pressing down on an actual physical key, so researchers have found a way to create actual bumps on a flat smartphone display to bring that functionality.

The Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon University has come up with this breakthrough technology, which it describes as ‘embedded electroosmotic pumps for scalable shape displays.’ The technology involves incorporating hydraulics-based haptics into a thin panel to go behind a smartphone OLED screen without unnecessarily increasing its thickness.

Not only will this technology be able to pop up tactile notifications, but a physical keyboard can also be formed, with individual buttons remaining inflated on the smartphone display until they are pressed. The researchers managed to create this using a flat panel and miniaturized hydraulic pumps, creating that ‘bulge’ through fluid. Each pump is individually controlled and can be activated separately for a wide range of functions, as stated above.

Thankfully, the tactile bumps will not absurdly increase in size, with the researchers reportedly testing out 2mm dimensions. Currently, the technology is owned by Carnegie Mellon, so it is possible that the university will start licensing it to other phone and notebook makers to use in future products. While these hydraulic pumps can be useful for helping users type a little faster on smartphone displays, this will be an exceptional change for notebooks.

We can imagine a dual-screen notebook released for consumers a few years from now, with one side of the machine ‘popping up’ those