Engineering the future
Zwart brothers set to patent VBT
Dianne Cornish
Published on
Mar 28, 2008
A cellphone or a Blackberry without function buttons? How about a microwave without buttons or a computer without a keyboard?
If these seem like far-fetched technological developments, then you haven't met the Zwart brothers of Flamborough. With the help of their dad, Jake, a mechanical engineer, Andrew Zwart and his younger brother, Daniel, both mechanical engineering students at the University of Waterloo (UW), are actively promoting a new product that uses invisible buttons rather than the traditional kind.
Called Virtual Buttons Technology (VBT), it offers users the option of simply tapping on an electronic device, rather than using buttons, to perform various functions, such as pulling up an address book on a cellphone or customizing a virtual keypad to suit a person's own specific purposes.
Embedded micro-sensors and vibrational mechanics perform the functions of buttons. This new form of user input replaces buttons and touch screens and makes it possible to enable invisible buttons anywhere on an electronic device. The invisible buttons are functionally equivalent to an electro-mechanical switch, but are entirely software generated.
The user simply taps the surface of a device at a specific point and things happen. Jake Zwart helped by giving his 24-year-old son, Andrew, advice about software development. He also helped find the tap location that triggers the software.
Andrew and Simon Lancaster-Larocque, another mechanical engineering student at the University of Waterloo, came up with the idea of VBT last September. Two other fourth-year students, Matthew Rendall and Kenneth Lee, were added to the team to help develop the new technology.
In January, the team's hard work paid off when they won first place in the innovative design category at the Ontario Engineering Competition. The win garnered them a spot in the recent Canadian Engineering Competition held earlier this month at the UW. About 160 of Canada's most innovative and creative engineers took part in the competition.
Rendall, Andrew and his brother, Daniel, 22, demonstrated the technology at the national event. While their entry didn't place at the competition, Andrew said he and other members of the team are convinced that VBT has many practical applications in everyday devices like cellphones and microwaves, as well as in industrial and medical computing.
As a result, they plan to put their technology on the market, possibly by next summer. They filed for a provisional patent last November and plan to file for a full patent soon.'
VBT has some important advantages over existing technology. Besides eliminating the need for buttons, it is waterproof and low cost. With it, the computer can be isolated from its environment, meaning that it can be protected from things like dust or coffee spills.
Andrew notes that VBT has a number of advantages when compared to touch screens. It's a lot less expensive at about $10 compared to $40 for a touch screen on an ipod. Touch screens on larger monitors can cost as much as $300 to $400.
Another advantage, Andrew added, is that VBT can make an entire device active whereas, only the surface on the front of a touch screen is active.
Daniel, a third-year mechanical engineering student at UW, is working with his brother, dad and other engineering students to develop the new technology. He's helping to interface a personal computer to a remote prototype for display and marketing purposes. Andrew and Daniel were both home schooled by their mother, Heather, from Grade 1 through high school.
"We're very self-directed and know how to motivate ourselves," Andrew said when asked about the advantages of home schooling compared to conventional teaching. "Home schooling allowed me to focus on work that I found interesting," he added.
Daniel said it was a seamless transition for him to go to university after being home schooled throughout elementary and high school.
Right now, the entire family, which includes brothers, Michael, 19 and Peter, 14, are working together on another special project - building a large energy-efficient house on 8th Concession Road West near Strabane. Teamwork seems to work well in both house building and the development of new technology.