One Button to Rule Them All

Button Simulator

A low-cost 3D-printed button that renders arbitrary force-displacement curves. Regular and imaginary buttons can be simulated.

Evaluation of 4 commercial buttons shows that average error offset of Button Simulator is only 0.34N.

All the code, material, experimental data, and a database of force-displacement curves are available in this page.

Abstract

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 oset 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.

Materials

All code, 3D model and data are open for anyone to use.

Experimental Data

Experimental data of Button Simulator paper

Implementation Materials

Implementation materials of Button Simulator (2.7 MB)
The package contains 3D models for 3D printer, 2D diagram for laser cutting, Arduino and Processing code.

Electronic Components

Moticont LVCM-025-022-02
Lenear force actuator, both LVCM-025-022-02 or LVCM-025-022-01 will work in our model.
TSL1401 Line scan sensor
Lenear optical sensor, which shoule be slightly modified based on this page.

Force-Displacement Measurement and Database

Force-displacement database
Several commercial buttons from different keyboards have been collected and free to download.
Force-displacement measurement device
A force-displacement curve measuring machine based on Arduino.

Publication

PDF, 1.4 MB
Liao, Y-C., Kim, S., & Oulasvirta, A. 2018. One Button to Rule Them All: Rendering Arbitrary Force-Displacement Curves In Proceedings of 31st ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium, UIST 2018.

	    
@inproceedings{liao2018onebutton,
author = {Liao, Yi-Chi and Kim, Sunjun and Oulasvirta, Antti},
booktitle = {UIST 2018: Proceedings of the 31th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology (UIST '18 Adjunct)},
title = {{One Button to Rule Them All: Rendering Arbitrary Force-Displacement Curves}},
year = {2018}
publisher = {ACM}
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3266037.3266118}
}

Contact

For questions and further information, please contact:

Yi-Chi Liao

Email:
yi-chi.liao (at) aalto.fi

Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC; grant agreement 637991)