Smartphones have been a surprise hit among blind people, thanks to their built-in cameras, GPS, and fast processors, that are all tied together by intelligent software. The touchscreen itself, though, is essentially blank if you’re blind, requiring blind users to memorize in advance where on the screen different buttons are located. Tactus Technology, a Fremont, CA company, may have a solution that will increase the interactive power of the touchscreen, and not only for blind people. According to TG Daily, the company developed microfluidic technology that allows real buttons to almost magically rise from the screen, with their location, size, shape, and firmness controlled by the current application on-screen.
The technology is surely exciting for us with good vision, but the possibility of displaying Braille that can be pressed, essentially hypertext for blind people, will bring enormous new possibilities to those that can’t see. Of course that is only the beginning, as many innovative new ideas for applying Tactus’ tactile technology will be developed. We look forward to the day when those of us with functional eyes will be trying to learn Braille to be able to message with our friends discreetly while at important meetings without even taking the phone out of our pocket.
TG Daily: Mobile tactile tech gets physical…