One button to rule them all: Rendering arbitrary force-displacement curves
Adjunct Proceedings of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface …, 2018•dl.acm.org
Physical buttons provide rich force characteristics during the travel range, which are
commonly described in the form of force-displacement curves. These force characteristics
play an important role in the users' experiences while pressing a button. However, due to
lack of proper tools to dynamically render various force-displacement curves, little literature
has tried iterative button design improvement. This paper presents Button Simulator, a low-
cost 3D printed physical button capable of displaying any force-displacement curves, with …
commonly described in the form of force-displacement curves. These force characteristics
play an important role in the users' experiences while pressing a button. However, due to
lack of proper tools to dynamically render various force-displacement curves, little literature
has tried iterative button design improvement. This paper presents Button Simulator, a low-
cost 3D printed physical button capable of displaying any force-displacement curves, with …
Physical buttons provide rich force characteristics during the travel range, which are commonly described in the form of force-displacement curves. These force characteristics play an important role in the users' experiences while pressing a button. However, due to lack of proper tools to dynamically render various force-displacement curves, little literature has tried iterative button design improvement. This paper presents Button Simulator, a low-cost 3D printed physical button capable of displaying any force-displacement curves, with limited average error offset around .034 N. By reading the force-displacement curves of existing push-buttons, we can easily replicate the force characteristics from any buttons onto our Button Simulator. One can even go beyond existing buttons and design non-existent ones as the form of arbitrary force-displacement curves; then use Button Simulator to render the sensation. This project will be open-sourced and the implementation details will be released. Our system can be a useful tool for future researchers, designers, and makers to investigate rich and dynamic button"s force design.
ACM Digital Library