“Very touched by your interface!”

12/01/2010

Buttons that blow up in your hand and a mobile that tries to throw you off balance? After all the dis-embodied interfaces, like gestural and speech input or slick touchscreens, good old haptics are back in the game. We think this is a good direction to bring human touch to digital experiences in the real world.

Chris Harrison, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, presented a beautiful pneumatic solution to the problem of giving digital information more tactile prominence. But this is not just about information, it could literally revolutionise the way it feels to interact with information, if tactile feelings are one of the most human forms of expression. Together with artificial muscles, or robotic elements, objects could assume very much more natural relationships with users.

Fabian Hemmert, another researcher from Germany, is exploring balance as a form of physical feedback in interactive objects. A leaning mobile in your hand could for example guide you around town, without having to observe the screen. A digital nudge, so to speak.