I’m going to list two ideas:
1) Providing touch feedback for touch screens
Touch screens are flat and lack touch feedback. In particular, touch screens rely exclusively on visual feedback to convey meaning to the user. Providing touch feedback could make it easier for users to interact with a phone or tablet. While not scientific, I find it helpful to compare my speed and comfort while typing on a tablet vs. typing on a keyboard with physical buttons. I hate typing on a tablet.
The idea is to build a prototype for a tablet that provides touch feedback with pneumatics. If the tablet shows a button, the button would rise to indicate that users can press on it. Since pneui is not transparent, I believe it’s best to prototype this idea with a projector that casts an image on a panel.
2) A jamming camera tripod or light fixture
I have a light that is clamped to my desk . Positioning it properly is a nightmare. Spring based mechanisms are just not flexible or accurate enough for this situation. A similar problem is that of positioning a tripod to a desired composition. Both of these mechanical components could be replaced by a jamming interface. The tripod, for instance, would be flexible until users press a button when the desired composition is found, after which the tripod would jam an freeze in the current setup.
