Online doom scrollers of the future could one-day add a new physical dimension to their arsenal of tapping and swiping. Researchers from the University of Bath recently developed a new “deformable,” silicone-based touch screen capable of altering its shape and stiffness when users apply various levels of force to it. The screen, which they refer to as “DeformIO” in a paper published in the Association for Computing Machinery, uses pneumatics and sensors to register levels of pressure applied by a finger and then physically collapses around it. Though the pliable screen is still nascent, researchers involved in its development say it could one day add a new input layer to mobile devices that could be used for a wide variety of use tasks, from navigating between digital maps to playing games and “feeling” the stiffness of products virtually.
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