New print quality

According to the source, it will be an OLED panel with inflatable buttons. The idea is being developed at the American Carnegie Mellon University. It consists of Combine the versatility of touch typing and the tactility of a QWERTY keyboard in one device. For this, the engineers came up with the idea of ​​inflating the screen, or rather pumping it with liquid.

Inflatable keyboard / Photo: Carnegie Mellon

Fans of QWERTY keyboards love them because the buttons are easy to feel with fingers and text can be typed without looking, which improves motor skills. At the same time, touch input is much more practical and does not require the integration of additional complex components into the smartphone.

To combine the advantages of both input methods, scientists are developing FIG – Flat Panel Haptic technology. The buttons on the keyboard are divided into equally separate sections and are placed below the flexible OLED matrix. When it’s time to type, the user invokes the on-screen keyboard and the buttons become pumped and tactilely noticeable..

The enhancement can potentially affect not only text typing, but also ordinary buttons in the interface of the mobile operating system – they can also become bulky at the right time. The panel inflates “bumps” with the help of liquid pumps, as a result of which the button can rise to a height of 100 cm above the screen. 1.5 millimeters. Each field takes approx. 1 second.

Inflatable button keyboard / Photo by Carnegie Mellon