Sony’s tiny flexi computer “has no stylus, buttons, switches or mouse: information has to be literally twisted out of it.”
“In the Gummi, the team has combined a standard, rigid LCD with sensors and a touch pad all mounted in a flexible acrylic plastic block (see graphic). Users can manipulate information on the screen by flexing the board and using the touch-sensitive pad to control the content. Piezoelectric pressure sensors, which generate a voltage when deformed, are built into the Gummi to detect the flexing.
“You can accomplish complex interactions with software, and control a variety of applications by using only deformation of the device, without the need for buttons,” says Poupyrev.
One reason for avoiding buttons is that they are difficult to incorporate into these credit-card-sized devices, which will be made by a process akin to printing.” ...
see NewScientist illustration for more detail.
