Tactile Keyboard for Touch Screens

Perhaps the single thing that people like least about their touch screen devices is typing on them. With no tactile feedback, it’s difficult to know whether you’ve hit the correct key (or any key for that matter). But a new technology that may be in production as early as the end of the year is poised to change the way we interact with our smartphones and tablets.

Tactile Layer™ uses microfluidics to make buttons rise up from the screen on demand and disappear when they’re not needed. Built-in channels filled with a non-toxic liquid actually push up the surface to create keys. The current version has the keys arranged in a single, fixed array, but eventually the layout will be dynamic, depending on the orientation of the device (e.g. portrait or landscape) or the application driving it. The pressure could even be adjustable to customize the feel.

Tactile Layer is scalable for any size display from phones to computers to televisions, and integrates with existing touch screen technologies simply by replacing the front layer.