Special gel for touchscreen devices creates physical buttons
While touchscreens found in most devices today are versatile and easy to use, some users find the slick surface limiting and difficult to use. For those who are more comfortable experiencing press-down finger interaction with screens, a special type of gel has been developed by researchers from Technische Universität Berlin, or TU Berlin, in Germany that can change from soft to stiff when heat is applied, making it possible to create temporary buttons.
According to the research team, this technology could make it easier to use in a range of electronics, from in-car displays to smartphones and wearable gadgets. They will present this innovation in November at a user-interface conference in North Carolina in the US. For the study, the researchers covered a prototype seven-inch touchscreen called GelTouch, with the special gel stiffened into three basic shapes, forming a grid of buttons, a slider and a one-finger joystick button. They tested the device for different applications such as using the buttons to dial a phone number without looking at the display, the slider to scroll through an array of photos, and the joystick to play a simple game.
To make GelTouch work, the researchers used a heat-activated gel that is transparent and fluid at room temperature, but hardens into an opaque, defined shape when warmed. The gel, which consists of 90 percent water, is activated when heated above 32 degrees Celsius. The team put a layer of indium tin oxide, or ITO, a transparent conductive film often used in displays, below the gel coating and connected electrodes to it. They then used different methods to heat up the gel, including passing a current from one electrode to the next to harden the gel lying between it.
The researchers claim that with GelTouch, several different button shapes can exist in the same spot. Different shapes can be engraved in multiple ITO layers beneath the gel, each with the ability to be heated individually. "You basically can have unlimited shapes or structures or whatever you want," says the study's lead researcher Viktor Miruchna in an interview with MIT Technology Review.
According to the team, GelTouch still presents a number of issues that need to be ironed out before it can be fully used for commercial applications. One of these concerns is that the solution needs better control currents to ensure that GelTouch’s temporary buttons do not continue to expand when activated for long periods of time. Miruchna says his team is already working to resolve these issues, as they hope the technology they developed could be used in commercial touchscreen products.
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