Touchscreen with Phone & IPad 'appearing and disappearing' buttons

USA-based start-up Tactus Technology showed off its prototype touchscreen that features buttons that can rise out of the flat surface of the screen. And disappear completely when not needed.  At SID 2012, the company demonstrated a prototype Android tablet featuring its touchscreen technology. Tactus' patented Tactile Layer component provides a next-generation haptic technology user interface with real physical buttons, guidelines, or shapes that rise out of the surface (and recede to invisibility) from any touchscreen. The Tactus Tactile Layer panel is said to be the world's first deformable tactile surface that creates dynamic physical buttons that users can actually see and feel in advance of entering data into the device. Hope this technology grope more business. The company uses microfluidic technology to create physical buttons that rise from the touchscreen to give users the experience of operating a physical keyboard. When no longer needed, the buttons recede back into the touchscreen, leaving no trace of their presence. The panel is a completely flat, transparent, dynamic surface that adds no extra thickness to the standard touchscreen display since it replaces a layer of the already existing display stack, the company said. When triggered, the thin layer deforms and buttons or shapes of a specific height, size and firmness appear on the surface of the screen. Users can feel, press down and interact with these physical buttons just like they would use keys on a keyboard. Tactus enables manufacturers to create devices with entirely new ergonomics and form factors, since the screen and the keyboard can now be combined. The technology is targeted at devices including smartphones, tablets, eBook readers, PNDs, medical devices, automotive displays, industrial controls, test equipment, gaming devices.