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Comment by mdm_ | Hacker News Reader

In the article they talk about making sections of a smartphone's screen feel different (permanently, I assume), but would it be possible to have a type of glass where the texture of the glass can be changed quickly and repeatedly by applying some sort of magnetic/electrical field and an app could, for example, make your phone's glass feel like it has buttons, then you could switch to another app and it would feel like a different set of buttons? I'm obviously not an electrical engineer, but I'd be interested to hear more informed opinions.

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Simply put, glass is molecularly geometric - building actuated buttons into the glass itself isn't very probable. But a film of actuated buttons could be added much like with capacitive touch sensors today.

Microfluidics is near the 100nm range today. Throw in a bit of ferrofluid and something like this is at least plausible. The challenge is in making all this transparent. The microfluidic channels would need to not create a 'screen door effect' and the fluid transparent.

The Royal Society of Chemistry's 'Lab on Chip' Youtube Channel [1] is a good place to daydream about the future of such things.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/user/labonachipVideos/videos

You might also find this video [1] interesting. Although it's not clear how far this company has actually got with the technology.

[1] http://vimeo.com/43431035

@1m18s you see a syringe of fluid - so it's something similar. Maybe two laser-cut capacitive films with non-conductive fluid pumped through to make static 'buttons'. Probably a better MVP than what I suggested earlier :).

Thanks for the link.

If your target audience are the visually impaired, why do you need to make them transparent?

Yes, that is already one of many options of haptic feedback being explored actually:

> A new technique that does not require actuators is called reverse-electrovibration. A weak current is sent from a device on the user through the object they are touching to the ground. The oscillating electric field around the skin on their finger tips creates a variable sensation of friction depending on the waveform, frequency, and amplitude of the signal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haptic_technology

It seems that I've got years of experience with third generation haptic technology then.

If you plugin a laptop into an outlet that is not properly grounded and move your fingers across metal surfaces of the thing, one can experience it first hand. A sensation of friction, like moving your fingers over ripples because of the current running through them. This should work with a lot of electrical appliances that have metal surfaces.

Not really pleasant though :)

Now that you mention it, I have that with my current laptop too! It has made me long for the days of plastic covers, something I did not think possible :).

I thought I was just imagining that area below the keyboard on my laptop sometimes feels rougher.

Totally possible Have a look at this http://tactustechnology.com/

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