With the iPhone and iPad, Apple completely transformed touchscreens with pinch-to-zoom and scrolling content, but there's just one small problem: using those interfaces pushes content off the screen. A new elastic-like touchscreen interface by researchers at the Osaka University can fix that by keeping content on the screen.

At Interaction 2011, the Japanese researchers showed off a demo of their flex interface running Google Maps. Instead of pushing content off the screen when scrolling, the interface warps and distorts the image so users can "keep an eye on the parts [of the picture] that were originally on the screen. The point is to decrease the amount of scrolling that's necessary when zooming in on images and it kind of succeeds.

"Unlike ordinary scrolling, this method flexes the content when you move your finger. But when you take your finger away, you get a scrolled screen, as with ordinary scrolling. When you are flexing the interface and return your finger back to the original position, the screen goes back to normal."

The researchers say that the interface can be easily added to any existing touchscreen device such as an iPhone through the magic of software. Whether or not Apple or anyone else is interested is another thing. From the demo, the interface works quite well and looks fun to toy with. Ah, the power of algorithms.

If you're still not getting the idea, check out the video demo below.

Via Digi Info