Not that amazing. As is these are no where near actual buttons. In ten years maybe, but for now it doesn't pose a threat.

Where's my tactile control stick eh?

Impressive stuff none the less... especially if it is not a set position (ie if the position, size and shape of the buttons can be changed quickly and easily on the same screen... currently watching the video to see if any of that happens)

Sounds like science fiction, which is awesome!

This would have to get some mass acceptance or easily implemented optional support, though. Nokia, Samsung and HTC in particular would have to gobble it up. Wouldn't expect Apple to support it unless they could buy it ...

Saw this on reddit yesterday and thought about making a thread for it. Really neat! I want to actually try it to see what it feels like. They mentioned that it can form buttons of any shape, so it could even form a d-pad maybe.

that is pretty cool!

Thus my reasoning to post this.

If it became widespread, a developer could call out a D-pad, any number of buttons, and so on for their game. That way, there is no requirement for the phone to have buttons, but that they are created on-demand. Would be great for gaming on smartphones.

I thought they have these long ago, still the biggest problem they have are games. 

Once I dated a crazy girl that was voracious, but totally hopeless at cooking. So I cooked and she handled my willy. And frittata was one of her favourite dishes. Mystery solved.   

Curry.

At most this will improve touch screen gaming. It wont make a touch-screen better than actual controls.

Just look back at the thumbstick nubs being replaced with actual thumbsticks on Wii U GamePad and the relieve many people had from that change... because nubs are less tactile and less fun to use than thumbsticks.