A physical button case for a phone that has disappeared buttons?

Vidgets are cases with custom physical buttons. In fact, no matter how sophisticated a smartphone is, the most intuitive thing for humans is the physical button. All physical buttons are disappearing from smartphones, but whether or not users prefer it is another matter. Fewer device parts can increase profits for companies.

The reason why Columbia University’s research team created a case for smartphones that allows users to freely change buttons or settings without the need for batteries, wires, or even Bluetooth is to alleviate the inconvenience to consumers in this trend.

All of these cases consist of physical buttons or scroll wheels using springs, and can be inserted into 8 slots on the back of the case as desired.

The funny thing is that you don’t need to connect Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, physical charging or sync terminals to do this. Instead, it uses a precision gyroscope built into the smartphone. It detects button actions using the app on the screen and converts them into touch screen manipulation. To this end, the inertial measuring device IMU captures small vibrations that occur in the XYZ axis when a button is pressed.

The buttons and wheels inserted into the case were called Vidgets. It is designed to make certain vibrations or small movements, such as pressing or turning. Not only can this custom software accurately detect this, it can also correlate this movement with the app being deployed on the screen. This study has also published its achievements during SIGGRAPH 2019.

This feature can also be used when operating games for smartphones. When playing action games that require joysticks and reflexes, it is quite difficult to operate them with a touch screen. You can’t feel the physical feedback on the screen, and it’s hard to be as sure as pressing a button properly. In this case, the buttons and dials may act as physical controllers.

Of course, this isn’t the perfect solution for smartphones with missing physical buttons. Further research and development is still required for commercialization. It is rare to press a duplicate button, but if you press another button simultaneously while rotating the dial, the vibration generated at this time can confuse the detection algorithm. In addition, accurate detection may be difficult even in situations where vibration continues to occur, such as when riding a car or train. However, the accuracy of this product could be higher in the future if the internal equipment of the smartphone can track physical movements with higher precision. Related information can be found here .