PRESENTATION OF DYNAMIC TACTILE AND VISUAL COLOR INFORMATION

Abstract

Approaches for dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information are provided. Specifically, provided is a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells each including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate coupled to the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells each including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and an electrical network for delivering an electrical current to each of the plurality of individually addressable cells. Either the first or the second substrate is formed atop an object. When the electrical current is supplied, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate exhibits a desired shape, and each of the individually addressable cells of the second substrate exhibits a desired color to demonstrate a customized appearance of the object.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related in some aspects to co-owned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/238,552, filed Sep. 21, 2011, and having attorney docket number CHA920110013US1, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to substrate-based color visualization and augmented reality and, more specifically, to a substrate providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user.

2. Description of the Related Art

Image reconstruction has long been used for law enforcement/forensic purposes, medical limb recreation, etc., with the goal of generating a realistic and useful representation of facial and body features. Reconstruction specialists oftentimes use detailed and nuanced skin colors/features to identify individuals and certain aspects of body formation (e.g., scars, a facial mole, etc.). In the medical field, practitioners may recreate facial features or limb structures to ease patient fear of surgical operations by providing patients a future look at what the outcome will hopefully result in. Unfortunately, current approaches are limited to conventional 2-D or 3-D computer imaging, which fails to provide a truly realistic and life-like representation to a user.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments herein provide a device having a plurality of cells arranged as an array in a substrate, one or more of the cells capable of providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user. Specifically, provided is a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate coupled to the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate. Either the first substrate or the second substrate is formed atop an artificial human body part. When the electrical current is supplied to the device, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate exhibits a desired shape, and each of the individually addressable cells of the second substrate exhibits a desired color. In this way, a standard artificial human body part can be customized as desired.

A first aspect of the invention provides a device for providing information to a user, the device comprising: a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell of the first substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate coupled to the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell of the second substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

A second aspect of the invention provides a system for providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user, the system comprising: a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell of the first substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate atop the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell of the second substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; memory operably associated with at least one processing unit; and an electrical network connected to, and capable of receiving computer instructions from the at least one processing unit for delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

A third aspect of the invention provides a computer-programmable device for providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user, the device comprising: a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells arranged in an array, each individually addressable cell of the first substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate atop the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells arranged in an array, each individually addressable cell of the second substrate including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that depict various embodiments of the invention, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of an exemplary computing environment in which elements of the present embodiments may operate;

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a device including a first and second substrate according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of a membrane of the device according to an illustrative embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of an implementation of first and second substrates according to an illustrative embodiment;

FIG. 6 shows a top view of the device according to an illustrative embodiment; and

FIG. 7 shows a top view of the device including the membrane according to an illustrative embodiment.

It is noted that the drawings of the invention are not to scale. The drawings are intended to depict only typical aspects of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements among the drawings.

Furthermore, certain elements in some of the figures may be omitted, or illustrated not-to-scale, for illustrative clarity. The cross-sectional views may be in the form of “slices”, or “near-sighted” cross-sectional views, omitting certain background lines, which would otherwise be visible in a “true” cross-sectional view, for illustrative clarity. Also, for clarity, some reference numbers may be omitted in certain drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments now will be described more fully herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. It will be appreciated that this disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of this disclosure to those skilled in the art.

Furthermore, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of this disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Furthermore, the use of the terms “a”, “an”, etc., do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”, or “includes” and/or “including”, when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, it may be appreciated that terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “determining,” “evaluating,” or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic data center device, that manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical quantities (e.g., electronic) within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or viewing devices. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As stated above, embodiments herein provide a device having a plurality of cells arranged as an array in a substrate, one or more of the cells capable of providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user. Specifically, provided is a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current; a second substrate coupled to the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate. Either the first substrate or the second substrate is formed atop an artificial human body part. When the electrical current is supplied to the device, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate exhibits a desired shape, and each of the individually addressable cells of the second substrate exhibits a desired color. In this way, a standard artificial human body part can be customized as desired.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a computerized implementation 100 of the present invention will be described in greater detail. As depicted, implementation 100 includes a computer infrastructure 102 having at least one computer system 104 deployed therein. This is intended to demonstrate, among other things, that the present invention could be implemented within a network environment (e.g., the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a virtual private network (VPN), etc.), a cloud-computing environment, or on a stand-alone computer system. Communication throughout the network can occur via any combination of various types of communication links. For example, the communication links can comprise addressable connections that may utilize any combination of wired and/or wireless transmission methods. Where communications occur via the Internet, connectivity could be provided by conventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol, and an Internet service provider could be used to establish connectivity to the Internet. Still yet, computer infrastructure 102 is intended to demonstrate that some or all of the components of the implementation could be deployed, managed, serviced, etc., by a service provider who offers to implement, deploy, and/or perform the functions of the present invention for others.

Computer system 104 is intended to represent any type of computer system that may be implemented in deploying/realizing the teachings recited herein. In this particular example, computer system 104 represents an illustrative system for using geolocation indicators to increase collaboration between users. It should be understood that any other computers implemented under the present invention may have different components/software, but will perform similar functions. As shown, computer system 104 includes a processing unit 106 capable of communicating with representation tool 118 stored in memory 108, a bus 110, and device interfaces 112.

Processing unit 106 refers, generally, to any apparatus that performs logic operations, computational tasks, control functions, etc. A processor may include one or more subsystems, components, and/or other processors. A processor will typically include various logic components that operate using a clock signal to latch data, advance logic states, synchronize computations and logic operations, and/or provide other timing functions. During operation, processing unit 106 collects and routes signals representing inputs and outputs between external devices 115 and representation tool 118. The signals can be transmitted over a LAN and/or a WAN (e.g., T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25), broadband connections (ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM), wireless links (802.11, Bluetooth, etc.), and so on. In some embodiments, the signals may be encrypted using, for example, trusted key-pair encryption. Different systems may transmit information using different communication pathways, such as Ethernet or wireless networks, direct serial or parallel connections, USB, Firewire®, Bluetooth®, or other proprietary interfaces. (Firewire is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)).

In general, processing unit 106 executes computer program code, such as program code for operating representation tool 118, which is stored in memory 108 and/or storage system 116. While executing computer program code, processing unit 106 can read and/or write data to/from memory 108, storage system 116, and representation tool 118. Storage system 116 can include VCRs, DVRs, RAID arrays, USB hard drives, optical disk recorders, flash storage devices, and/or any other data processing and storage elements for storing and/or processing data. Although not shown, computer system 104 could also include I/O interfaces that communicate with a device 120 capable of providing information (e.g., tactile and visual) to a user 121. As will be described in greater detail below, device 120 comprises a receiver 122 for receiving information from representation tool 118 and relaying it to user 121 via a plurality of individually addressable cells.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a cross-sectional view of device 220, which is capable of presenting information to a user in a tactile and visually dynamic form, is shown. Device 220 includes a first substrate 224 and a second substrate 226, each substrate containing a plurality of addressable cells, e.g., addressable cells 228A-228N and 230A-230N, respectively. Each addressable cell 228A-N of first substrate 224 includes an electrically active material (e.g., a quantity of a polar material) capable of changing size/shape in response to an electrical current from an electrical network 234, which is connected to, and capable of delivering the electrical current to, each of plurality of addressable cells 228A-N and 230A-N of first substrate 224 and second substrate 226. Meanwhile, each addressable cell 230A-N of second substrate 226 includes an electrically active material (e.g., a quantity of a polar material) capable of changing color in response to an electrical current from electrical network 234. That is, each addressable cell 230A-N is filled with a magnetic composition, which is subject to color change from light. For example, a crystal element, when expanded from its center, will change the frequency of light being deflected when charged by electrical network 234.

Although not shown for the sake of clarity, it'll be appreciated that second substrate 226 and first substrate 224 are directly coupled to one another. As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 2, second substrate 226 is positioned atop first substrate 224, which is formed over an object 236 (e.g., an artificial human body part/feature made from silicon), for the purpose of providing dynamic visual and tactile modification of artificial human body part 236. That is, device 220 is capable of transmitting and displaying a change in shape of the electrically active material of first substrate 224 and the color of the electrically-active material of second substrate 226 to customize colors and features of artificial human body part 236 (e.g., skin tone, scars, tattoos, etc.). In an alternative embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, device 320 comprises first substrate 324 positioned atop second substrate 326, which is formed over artificial human body part/feature 336. Furthermore, although artificial human body part/feature 336 is depicted as relatively flat, it will be appreciated that artificial human body part/feature 336 may include multiple contours to which first substrate 324 and second substrate 326 conform.

In one embodiment, the device further includes a flexible membrane 440, which is laid atop first substrate 424 and plurality of cells 428A-N, as shown in FIG. 4. Membrane 440 may include any known or later-developed material capable of transferring, to a top surface 452, the change in shape and/or position imposed upon its underside, as well as a color generated by the electrically active material of the addressable cells of the second substrate. Suitable materials include, but are not limited to, silicone materials and rubber materials.

During use, a change in shape and/or position of one or more cells 428A-N in response to an electrical current is transferred to an underside of membrane 440 and, due to the flexibility of membrane 440, to top surface 454. FIG. 4, for example, shows device 420, in which cells 428A and 428B have been electrically activated to induce a change in shape and/or position of an electrically-active material therein. FIG. 4 shows device 420 with membrane 440 in place, such that electrically activated cells 428A and 428B form protrusions 450 and 452, respectively, on top surface 454. As can be seen, raised protrusions 450 and 452 have varying heights, which may be transferred to surface 454 of membrane 440 by varying the degree or extent of change in shape and/or position of the electrically-active material of electrically activated cells 428A and 428B. Meanwhile, those cells that have not been electrically activated remain un-raised, e.g., cell 428A. This varying degree or extent of change in shape and/or position, in turn, may be achieved, for example, by altering a current to which the electrically-active material is exposed. The consequence of this varying degree or extent of change in shape and/or position is a membrane capable of providing a user with a contoured or multi-level display of tactile information. While membrane 440 is shown in FIG. 4 as including raised protrusions 450 and 452 capable of producing surface 454 with two heights, it should be understood that this is merely for purposes of illustration and that any number of levels may be achieved, as may a continuum of raised feature heights.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed view of a portion of device 520. In FIG. 5, individual cells 528A-N and 530A-N may be seen within first substrate 524 and second substrate 526, respectively. Each individually addressable cell contains an electrically-active material (e.g., 560 and 562, respectively), which may be the same or different materials. In some embodiments, each cell 528A-N and 530A-N may include a support material, such as a fluid, which may ease or facilitate changes in shape and/or position of the electrically-active material 560 and 562. Electrically-active material 560 and 562 is in communication with electrical network 534, and is capable of changing shape/position/color in response to an electrical current supplied by electrical network 534. As such, each of individually addressable cells 528A-N of first substrate 524 is independently capable of a range of changes in shape/size.

In some embodiments, the electrically active material may include a quantity of a polar material that, in the absence of an electrical current is electrically neutral, but which may adopt a change in shape/position/color in response to a supplied electrical current. Some oils, for example, are capable of adopting a changed shape in response to an electrical current, with the electrons of the individual oil molecules attracted toward a positive electrical current supplied by electrical network 534 and the positively charged nuclei of the individual oil molecules being repelled away from the positive electrical current.

Furthermore, for cells 530A-N of second substrate 526, electrically-active material 562 is a liquid having a sensitive magnetic composition, which when charged changes color. That is, the liquid material is frequency and magnetic sensitive such that when a magnetic pulse charge is applied one or more cells 530A-N, light will be displayed to show an abstract color formation.

Furthermore, in one non-limiting embodiment, cells 530A-N are spherical in construction/shape, and react to changes in magnetic frequency by swelling when a magnetic pulse is directed to electrically-active material 562. The particles in the liquid will react and reflect light changing the wavelength of light that is reflected and result in a color change. As such, each of individually addressable cells 530A-N of second substrate 526 is independently capable of a range of changes in color.

In some embodiments of the invention, a solid electrically-active material is employed. Suitable materials include, for example, alloys of samarium and cobalt. Other materials will be apparent to one skilled in the art and are within the scope of the invention. Regardless of the electrically-active material employed, the result is a change in shape, position, and/or color of the electrically-active material within each cell.

Turning now to FIGS. 6-7, a top view of a portion of device 620, which is capable of presenting information to a user in a tactile and visually dynamic form, is shown. Device 620 includes second substrate 626 (or, alternatively, first substrate 624) in which is formed a plurality of individually addressable cells 630A-N arranged in an array of rows and columns connected to electrical network 634 capable of delivering an electrical current independently to each of plurality of cells 630A-N. FIG. 7 shows device 720 with a partially cutaway of membrane 740 atop second substrate 726 and plurality of addressable cells 730A-N.

While FIGS. 6-7 show the cells of the device arranged in an array of rows and columns, this is not necessary or essential. Other arrangements of cells are possible, as will be apparent to one skilled in the art, and are within the scope of the invention. The evenly-distributed arrangement of cells shown in these embodiments is merely illustrative, although such arrangements are advantageous for representation. Furthermore, while the embodiments provided herein show a relatively small number of individual cells within each substrate, it should be understood that this is merely for purposes of illustration and explanation. In some embodiments of the invention, a device will include many more such cells, resulting in the ability to present tactile and visual color information of greater quantity and/or finer granularity. For example, current manufacturing techniques allow individual cells to be spaced such that their centers are as close as 40 μm apart, resulting in over 400,000 cells per square inch of each substrate. At this level of granularity, very complex information, including representations of the topology of an area and the shapes or contours of individual objects, including a human face, may be dynamically presented in tactile form with easily variable colors.

It can be appreciated that the approaches disclosed herein can be used within a computer system to providing tactile and color information to a user. In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, one or more systems for performing the processes described in the invention can be obtained and deployed to computer infrastructure 102 (FIG. 1). To this extent, the deployment can comprise one or more of (1) installing program code on a computing device, such as a computer system, from a computer-readable storage medium; (2) adding one or more computing devices to the infrastructure; and (3) incorporating and/or modifying one or more existing systems of the infrastructure to enable the infrastructure to perform the process actions of the invention.

The exemplary computer system 104 (FIG. 1) may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, people, components, logic, data structures, and so on, which perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Exemplary computer system 104 may be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

Some of the functional components described in this specification have been labeled as systems or units in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a system or unit may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom VLSI circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A system or unit may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like. A system or unit may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. A system or unit or component of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified system or unit need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the system or unit and achieve the stated purpose for the system or unit.

Further, a system or unit of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices and disparate memory devices.

Furthermore, as will be described herein, systems/units may also be implemented as a combination of software and one or more hardware devices. For instance, integration platform 118 may be embodied in the combination of a software executable code stored on a memory medium (e.g., memory storage device). In a further example, a system or unit may be the combination of a processor that operates on a set of operational data.

As noted above, some of the embodiments may be embodied in hardware. The hardware may be referenced as a hardware element. In general, a hardware element may refer to any hardware structures arranged to perform certain operations. In one embodiment, for example, the hardware elements may include any analog or digital electrical or electronic elements fabricated on a substrate. The fabrication may be performed using silicon-based integrated circuit (IC) techniques, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), bipolar, and bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) techniques, for example. Examples of hardware elements may include processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor devices, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. However, the embodiments are not limited in this context.

Also noted above, some embodiments may be embodied in software. The software may be referenced as a software element. In general, a software element may refer to any software structures arranged to perform certain operations. In one embodiment, for example, the software elements may include program instructions and/or data adapted for execution by a hardware element, such as a processor. Program instructions may include an organized list of commands comprising words, values, or symbols arranged in a predetermined syntax that, when executed, may cause a processor to perform a corresponding set of operations.

For example, an implementation of exemplary computer system 104 (FIG. 1) may be stored on or transmitted across some form of computer-readable storage medium and/or computer-readable storage device. Computer-readable storage medium/device can be media that can be accessed by a computer. “Computer-readable storage medium/device” includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable computer storable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Computer storage device includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by a computer. “Communication medium” typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, and program modules. Communication media also includes any information delivery media.

It is apparent that there has been provided approaches for providing tactile and color information to a user. While the invention has been particularly shown and described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications will occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, it is to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes that fall within the true spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A device for providing information to a user, the device comprising:

a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current;

a second substrate coupled to the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and

an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first substrate is formed atop an artificial human body part.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate are arranged in an array.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising a membrane atop the second substrate, the membrane capable of relaying the change in shape of the electrically-active material of the first substrate and the color of the electrically-active material of the second substrate.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the membrane includes a silicone material.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising a receiver for receiving information capable of presentation to the user via the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate further includes an oil.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the electrically-active material includes an alloy of samarium and cobalt.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate is independently capable of a range of changes in shape, and wherein each of the individually addressable cells of the second substrate is independently capable of a range of changes in color.

10. A system for providing dynamic tactile and visual color presentation of information to a user, the system comprising:

a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current;

a second substrate atop the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current;

memory operably associated with at least one processing unit; and

an electrical network connected to, and capable of receiving computer instructions from the at least one processing unit for delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising an artificial human body part having formed thereon the first substrate.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate are arranged in an array.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising a membrane atop the second substrate, the membrane capable of relaying the change in shape of the electrically-active material of the first substrate and the color of the electrically-active material of the second substrate.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the membrane includes a silicone material.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising a receiver for receiving information capable of presentation to a user using the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate further includes an oil.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the electrically-active material includes an alloy of samarium and cobalt.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate is independently capable of a range of changes in shape, and wherein each of the individually addressable cells of the second substrate is independently capable of a range of changes in color.

19. A computer-programmable device for providing information to a user, the device comprising:

a first substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells arranged in an array, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing shape in response to an electrical current;

a second substrate atop the first substrate, the second substrate comprising a plurality of individually addressable cells arranged in an array, each individually addressable cell including an electrically-active material capable of changing color in response to an electrical current; and

an electrical network connected to, and capable of delivering an electrical current to, each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate and the second substrate.

20. The computer-programmable device of claim 19, further comprising a memory device operably associated with at least one processing unit capable of generating a set of computer instructions to provide a range of changes in shape to the electrically-active material of each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the first substrate, and to provide a range of changes in color to the electrically-active material of each of the plurality of individually addressable cells of the second substrate.