Here’s an idea I know I’ve been kicking around in my head for years. Tactile feedback from the trackpad. It seems so obvious, I’m not sure why I can’t already feel the icons and windows on my MBP. Well, this ZEN (Z-axis ENabled) Computing concept allows just that, and more. It’s designed for blind users, basically a gigantic 3-D touchpad that can rise and fall physically at a high resolution, conveying everything from window locations to text using braille.

Sounds great, but I think the engineering is still fiction, considering the design uses nothing more specific than “nano-scale fibers.” They may as well have said it runs on Truffula Tree extract. Still, I’d like to see this idea happen.

Zen PC Design for the Visually Impaired