Innovative OLED Screen Technology: Future Phones To Include Inflatable Buttons!
Since the launch of smartphones, we have become quite used to swiping and tapping on flat mobile screens, tablets, and other touchscreen devices, but it doesn’t provide the level of ease that we get on any hardware keyboard or physical controller while playing games.
To solve these problems, two researchers Chriss Harrison and Craig Shultz have worked on FIG (Future Interfaces Group) at Carnegie Mellion University and invested in a display, of which screen can take different configurations. This is completely a new concept and we haven’t seen it before. Compared with other smartphones, this display is quite versatile, lighter, and thinner.
‘Juicy Bubble Buttons’: A New Trend For The Future Of Smartphone Interfaces
Contents
FIG’s new tech can be easily stacked as a layer under an OLED panel that can further create the protrusions, the imaginary screens that can be deflated and inflated with the liquidity based on demand.
This could provide a new dimension to the display and give a feel of keyboards, pop media controls, and virtual gamepads. In the upcoming sections of this blog, we will learn more about juicy bubble buttons ie, the Inflatable Buttons and how they are going to revolutionize smartphones.
What Are The Inflatable Buttons?
As we discussed earlier, Inflatable Buttons are the new kind of buttons introduced in smartphones that give the user tactile feedback when they are pressed.
Technically, the OLED screen of the mobile is filled with liquid that pops up when the button is clicked, resulting in a satisfying tactile sensation for the user.
Additionally, these buttons can be easily customized based on the tactile feedback needed to make them much more suitable for a different range of users.
Under the hood, FIG uses the Flat Panel Haptics technology that is responsible to add the elements of touch ability, and tactility to the display of any smartphone or touchscreen device. This technology is built by staking with a layer of pumps that can automatically deflate or inflate based on the requirement.
This technology is quite different from already existing haptic feedback technologies like Apple’s tactic Engine, which offers a natural feeling of vibrations when someone touches a smartphone, but it does not provide physical feedback on the device.
Talking about the working of this technology, it works in such a way that when the pop-up button is needed the fluid gets filled to the EEOPs(Embedded Electroosmotic Pumps) layers in the display of touchscreen devices. This allows the OLED display to bend and take the shape of buttons.
And when the button is released by the software, the fluid gets back and creates a flat display resulting in the disappearance of the buttons. The team working on this technology has estimated the time of one second for buttons to give a solid tactile feel.
Inflatable Buttons And The Future Of The Smartphone Design
In the recent few years, the design of smartphones has been constantly improving and making new innovations. Inflatable Buttons being one of the best innovations has great potential to revolutionize smartphone design.
Moreover, the juicy bubbles can enhance the overall user experience with their tactile feedback, which currently lacks in most smartphones. Also, it can make it quite easy for disabled people to easily access smartphones unlike now when they find it quite difficult to use touchscreens.
There are a lot of customization features available in the Juciy Buttons that are not available, in the traditional buttons. Manufacturers can customize the level of tactile feedback and insert liquidated filled capsules. the significance of Inflatable Buttons is that they can enhance the overall usability and versatility of various touchscreen devices.
Users can use these buttons to perform complex tasks. As technology continues to make an improvement, we can expect that it will be playing an important role to shape the future of touchscreen devices’ user interface. For example, it would be heavily used for making interactive games and applications for smartphone users.
User Experience And Juicy Bubble Buttons
For any smartphone, the user experience is the key component. As we talked about earlier Juciy Bubble buttons can impact the user experience by providing a more satisfying experience using tactical feedback.
As per the recent survey done, A lot of users have found Inflatable Buttons to provide an intuitive and natural way of interacting with smartphones. Furthermore, juicy buttons have been quite beneficial for people with hearing and visual impairments who find it quite difficult to use the touch screen. Overall it can be quite helpful for people to interact with their smartphones.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Inflatable Buttons
- Tactile Feedback: Inflatable Buttons provide a tactical sensation as compared to the hardware devices like keyboards. This enhances the overall speed and accuracy while typing and moreover, it also provides and satisfying user experience.
- Accessibility: People with disability, can easily use Inflatable Buttons to interact with smartphones. For example, the technology can easily amalgamate with the on-screen braille which would be quite useful for people with visual impairment.
- Versatility: The technology continues to make any advancement, it is quite possible that juicy buttons get introduced for a variety of use cases along with smartphones. For example, cars can use Inflatable Buttons to provide more tactile feedback for in-car controls, also in-game controllers to enhance the overall gaming experience.
- New and advanced user experience: Inflatable Buttons have opened up new opportunities for people to enhance the overall user experience for touchscreen devices. People can easily use a virtual joystick or some control buttons that pop ups when there is some need in games or applications.
Though there are some amazing advantages Inflatable Buttons are still new and have some disadvantages which are constantly improving with ongoing research.
- Limited shape and size features: The current version of Juicy buttons has a very limited set of sizes and shapes. This overall causes a hurdle in the versatility of the technology, particularly when a unique size or shape is needed.
- Cost: Adding Juciy Bubbles to smartphones makes the cost of smartphone manufacturing quite high, resulting in accessibility for only a few years. There have been no accurate estimations on how much this can cost but this is an amazing feature of the people who want such sort of feel.
- Durability: It is still not sure, how durable the Inflatable Buttons would be when they are used heavily. If the buttons break due to any malfunction or accident then it would get quite expensive and difficult to repair.
- Battery life: There is a certain amount of power needed by the smartphone to offer a seamless working of the Inflatable Buttons. People who use their smartphones quite heavily might find some problems with battery consumption.
Areas Where Inflatable Buttons Can Play A Major Role
Gaming is one such sector, where the Juicy Bubble buttons can play a major role. As we have seen the growth of mobile gaming in the few years, a lot of people are now using mobile devices instead of gaming devices.
The major drawback of using mobile devices found in several surveys and research is that they it doesn’t give the feel or tactile feedback that traditional gaming devices give.
With the help of Inflatable Buttons, gamers’ overall user experience can become quite more immersive. With tactical feedback, it can make it quite easier for gamers to control several characters and provide precise gameplay. With the level of customization available with the Inflatable Buttons one can create a more personalized gaming experience.
Furthermore, Inflatable Buttons can also revolutionize how users interact with various other touchscreen devices. For example, e-readers and tablets can leverage this technology to gain several benefits from it.
E-readers users can have a tactical sensation when they turn pages that give them the feel of a physical book. Similarly, tablets can improvise the typing experience of the users with the help of the Inflatable Buttons making it quite easier for the users to type on the virtual keyboard.
Bottomline
In conclusion, one of the promising technology in the upcoming times is the Inflatable Buttons. They have got great potential to enhance and revolutionize the smartphone user experience. Also, this can provide tactical feedback just like the hardware devices making it quite easier for people to use their smartphones including disabled people.
Further, this Inflatable Buttons technology incorporates a lot of customization features and it is known to be quite versatile to be used in any kind of despite. Although there are some disadvantages, with ongoing research, this technology can improve and address the current limitations.
Overall, Inflatable Buttons are all set to bring an evolution in the touchscreen device industry. It is going to be quite exciting to observe the future advancements of this technology.
Last but not least, Inflatable Buttons aim to create some new opportunities for developers and designers to build and design applications that can provide an engaging and innovative user experience to the users beyond traditional touchscreen devices.
