Pop-Up Keyboard Injects Liquid Into Your Screen To Create Tactile Buttons

There’s a stark difference between typing on your phone and your laptop. The absence of tactile buttons on most displays can sometimes make for an awkward feeling after a long day hacking away at a real keyboard.
 
But as the mobile phone industry continues to evolve, flip phones might be coming back, but tactile buttons might be long gone. That is, if anything, the team down at the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Melon has anything to say about that.
 
The new technology, shared in a paper here, takes a more bubbly stance on typing by using miniature hydraulic pumps to push fluid under the surface of your device. TechTimes likens this to zits appearing and disappearing on your screen. Though it’s a little more complicated than that.

 
In the experiment, the team developed a panel with tiny hydraulic pumps attached to it to raise its surface. These were individually controlled and activated separately. In a demo video, the surface slowly inflated with liquid and deflated once pressed.

The surface was only 5mm thick and could withstand the same type of pressure typically used when browsing on the device.

 
While it might be true that most of us have gotten used to the feeling of a smartphone screen by now, a more refined version of these bubble-like keyboards could come in handy in ensuring you don’t make any typos when texting. Of course, anything to save you from an embarrassing text is a bonus, isn’t it?
 
The study is still in its early stages, but who knows, we might be a short step away from buttons that pop up at our touch.
 
 
 
[via TechTimes and MacRumors, ID 177117845 © Chernetskaya | Dreamstime.com]