Making tech more human: e-readers that feel thinner as you read

What if the virtual world were tangible?

You may have gotten a small taste by using a Nintendo Wii or a virtual reality simulator, but it's clear that you get very little physical feedback by holding your very expensive, very intelligent smartphone -- short of a small vibration, that is.

But it's those tangible aspects that product engineers and designers have yet to stimulate in a more than rudimentary way -- to truly take advantage of our natural, built-in senses.

In a presentation from TEDxBerlin, designer Fabian Hemmert imagines electronics and other systems that use physical stimulation to convey more complicated data than a simple alert.

For example, Hemmert imagines a shifting weight that tells you there's more off the screen, or a change in size that could tell you that you're halfway through your e-book -- without looking at the page numbers.

Here's the video:

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com