Touchscreens are attention hogs–you’ve simply got to look at them each time you want to type a letter. So the folks atTactus Technology提出了一个触觉层，该触觉层使真实的物理按钮在需要时从透明的触摸屏表面中移出，在完成后将其消失在屏幕中。
The idea of a deformable touchscreen surface came to Craig Ciesla, CEO of Tactus, way back in 2007, when he found himself using his BlackBerry instead of the newly released iPhone because of its keyboard. That set him thinking as to whether it might be possible to somehow marry a physical tactile surface with a flat touchscreen. Could you have any type of keyboard or interface you wanted rise and fall out of a touchscreen on-demand, to get the best of both worlds?
Ciesla说：“我意识到可以通过使用微流体学来回答这个问题。”他们的设计要求透明覆盖层薄，并在触摸屏显示屏上放置一些非常特殊的属性。1mm厚的略带弹性层由玻璃或塑料制成，其微通道充满了无毒流体。借助小的内部控制器增加流体压力会导致透明的物理按钮在不到一秒钟的时间内从层的表面中生长出来。形成后，您可以感觉到按钮，将手指放在手指上或打开它们，就像机械键盘一样。“当您不想要按钮时，您会降低流体压力，将液体抽出，然后将按钮退回到原来的平坦状态。”（没有乱七八糟的清理 - 设备中的流体量最小。）“您的表面没有任何东西，” Ciesla解释说。
目前，每个接口设计人员都必须找到某种方法来应对触摸屏技术的两个非常基本的挑战：如何知道您的手指在完全平坦的表面（方向）以及您实际上做了什么时（确认）。那里几乎所有的解决方案都采用触觉或听觉提示来让用户知道何时触发输入，但没有什么能真正处理定位。根据其开发人员的说法，这是该层真正发光的地方。Tactus副总裁Nate Saal说：“我们是真正的身体变形，您知道自己在哪里，可以感觉到钥匙的边缘和位置。”
关于这个系列
Fast Company profiles the personalities behind the ideas that shake up business as usual.Discover more about these pioneers here。
Once the layer morphs to create the buttons they remain stable and you can type on them for seconds or hours. Triggered to rise or fall by a proximity sensor or software, button shape, size, height, and firmness can be very minutely controlled. It’s even possible to pre-configure multiple button sets in the manufacturing process and have different button sets rise according to the users’ interface needs.
萨尔（Saal）渴望指出，尽管这不仅仅是一个很酷的主意。萨尔解释说：“我们不是键盘技术，也不是按钮技术，我们是一种用户界面技术，人们可以采用我们的技术并创建他们想要的任何界面。”在该表面上成为任何形式的形状或构造。”
Think gridlines rising out of the backside of a device on a door or an interface curved all around a steering wheel that pops up ring shapes when you need to change the volume on your car’s music player. “Having this technology in my pocket or in my bag is cool, but what if it was also on the side of a building? What happens if the entire glass facade of a building is one giant touchscreen that can physically change?” asks Brian Crooks, Associate Creative Director at和合作伙伴。他补充说：“设计师肯定会非常有趣地调查和玩游戏带来的所有可能性。”
直接的好处是，通过触摸屏键盘的每分钟25个单个分钟速度的触摸型速度要快得多，并且能够在现有设备上进行更多的操作。“Today’s mobile devices are tremendously capable computers and the reason we do not use them like desktop computers or laptops is because the human-computer interface is contained,” says Chris Harrison, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher who developed a pneumatically controlled tactile layer a few years ago in the laboratory.
可访问合作伙伴的沙龙·罗森布拉特（Sharon Rosenblatt）是一家测试残疾人的合规性和创新技术使用的公司，他认为，如果触摸屏能够真正成为触觉，这将是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。目前，对于视觉挑战，老年人以及患有肌肉或关节疾病的人来说，可访问性是一个巨大的问题。使用越来越多的触摸屏设备，从ATM到微波炉和手机，都是不断的斗争。
Tactus expects to start shipping their layer in mid 2013 to manufacturers. Currently the technology is on display at SID, the Society for Information Display in Boston. Considering how many technologies exclude many of our senses, the idea of working to incorporate more sense related information into the next generation of user interfaces is exciting news for some. “While our sight isn’t that of an eagle, and our smell not that of a dog, and our hearing not a bat’s, our sense of touch may be our single most sensitive input method, and it is therefore logical that in a world of touch interfaces, we would strive to bring back some of the tactility we’ve lost compared to traditional hardware,” says Michael Fienen, Senior Interactive Developer at Aquent.