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Here's a brief article about Tactus: http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064674/tactus-technology-p... Looks like the button locations are fixed for now, but they're hoping to make them adjustable in the future.
Could you take little sections of this stuff, stack them together, and use them as a sort of programmable matter type thing? Maybe if you fold them over or something they could just basically expand and contract. So you expand a bunch in one section to make a feature. Then wrap the whole thing in a very flexible skin. Press a button on a computer, and it morphs between (for example) an alligator shape and a person sh…
Throw in a camera for object tracking; or a bright light - you could make little glowing orbs that roll around, float in water etc.
Throw a bunch over a wall - they move around and map rooms as a swarm.
Prediction: Apple buys the company and the proceeds to get every patent they can on this tech.
Judging by the video, it looks like the layout of the buttons is fixed, only their presence is toggleable. If so, that's a bit of a bummer.
I wonder if that's actually a good criteria for defining game changing innovation - that you can't think what a better version would look like.
The video can be found here: http://vimeo.com/43431035 I really dislike the voice-over they have, but that might be personal preference. It just sounds like a regular person imitating a professional voice actor to me.
Judging by the video, it looks like the layout of the buttons is fixed, only their presence is toggleable. If so, that's a bit of a bummer.
A bummer. Now, that is classic. I remember using public payphones just a little over a decade ago. One time some kids had put Vaseline on the earpiece. That was a fun time. Now we have a phone in our pocket that we can talk to and have it do nearly anything. By next year, it will have buttons when we want and no buttons when we don't. Vaseline on your ear is a bummer. This button-no-button stuff is not a bummer.
With current touchscreen interfaces, you rely almost solely on visual cues and feedback to make correct inputs. Not a good situation while driving, when you need as much visual attention as possible focused on the road.
The best interfaces for operating complex or dangerous machines have fixed, haptically identifiable reference points; this allows you to reach out (in the dark or without shifting visual focus) and make some sort of adjustment without fumbling or disturbing your flow. If the touchscreen can be elegantly brought into that realm, so much the better.
Tesla Model S 2.0 perhaps?
BTW, anyone have an idea of how this technology works?
Update: From the article linked below in a comment by kpozin, it's based on hydraulics. Ingenious.