Microsoft patents touchscreen of tomorrow

Microsoft has filed a patent last week with the U.S. patent office for a tactile display technology it calls a “Light-Induced Shape-Memory Polymer Display Screen.” Some have termed this “touchscreen of tomorrow“. Such a display could generate small ridges and textures on its surface. For instance, the display could provide a virtual keyboard that could give users the feel of an actual keyboard, the patent application states. To make this happen, the display itself would contain a “topography-changing layer” comprised of something called shape-memory polymers, which change shape depending on the ultraviolet light signal received. The system would require a topography-changing engine to supply the light signals.

Whereas previous screens produced only an illusion of texture, Microsoft proposes producing a real texture, using pixel-sized shape-memory plastic cells that can be ordered to protrude from the surface on command.

Vibrotactile displays (displays that use voltages of different frequencies, applied to a grid below the touchscreen, to trick our fingertips into experiencing a wide variety of touch sensations) are screens which produce only an illusion of texture. Examples are

• Nokia has developed a prototype of its N900 smartphone that lets you feel the texture of icons on the screen – a technology that would add a whole new dimension to touchscreen apps. The technology is based on an effect called electrovibration, in which touch receptors in the skin can be fooled into perceiving texture when you swipe a fingertip across an insulating layer above a metal surface carrying an alternating voltage. The higher the frequency of that alternating voltage, the smoother the texture feels.
• TeslaTouch
• Senseg

New Scientist in article mentions that Microsoft’s named inventor, Erez Kikin-Gil ( a Microsoft senior user experience designer)at the firm’s Redmond campus in Washington state, says in the patent that the idea is aimed at large table-sized computing displays such as the company’s Surface, rather than phones or tablets.

Microsoft Surface is a revolutionary multi-touch computer that responds to natural hand gestures and real-world objects, helping people interact with digital content in a simple and intuitive way. With a large, horizontal user interface, Surface offers a unique gathering place where multiple users can collaboratively and simultaneously interact with data and each other.