Flat Panel Haptics: Embedded Electroosmotic Pumps for Scalable Shape Displays

The flat, featureless nature of touch screen displays has meant keyboard text entry is slower and more error-prone than on mechanical counterparts, and has also introduced negative side effects in demanding settings like automotive. Ideally, we could maintain the graphical flexibility afforded by displays, but carry over the tactile benefits of physical keyboard keys and buttons. Flat panel haptic displays have the potential to achieve this. We present a new type of shape-changing display using embedded electroosmotic pumps (EEOPs). Our pumps are 1.5mm in thickness, and allow complete stack-ups under 5mm with the opportunity to become much thinner. Our EEOPs can move their entire volume's worth of fluid in 1 second, and apply pressures of +/-50kPa. This is enough to create dynamic, mm scale tactile features on a surface.