Patent ID: 8427433

Claim:
A rigid touch-screen display, comprising: a gel layer having a plurality of separately deformable discreet surface areas of said touch-screen display; a display layer that generates a display, the generated display including a plurality of control elements defined on said touch-screen display, each of the plurality of control elements positioned to overlap a corresponding discrete surface area of the plurality of separately deformable discrete surface areas; a digitizer layer that detects contact with and selection of one of the plurality of control elements on the touch-screen display surface by a user; and a tactile feedback controller that separately controls said deformation of each of said plurality of discrete surface areas of said gel layer, said tactile feedback controller activating the deformable discrete surface area corresponding to the selected control element at least in response to the detected contact and selection of the one of the plurality of control elements where activating includes producing a dimple or bulge in a relative thickness of the gel layer, the dimple or bulge is located on the discrete surface area directly over the selected control element.