Beyond that array, the rest of the body is devoid of buttons and switches.

ENGADGET: Ion iCade Mobile and iCade Core review

The walls are lined with bulky green and silver machinery, an array of knobs with buttons and switches covering every metallic surface.

BBC: Tallinn��s secret history of espionage

Touch sensing helps increase product lifetimes by eliminating mechanical wear and tear associated with buttons and switches, while minimizing system cost by saving an extra IC in the design.

ENGADGET: Freescale's new industrial touchscreen tech even works in the rain

This first phase of the two competitions is to enable Robonaut 2 to recognize the state and location of several buttons and switches on a dashboard fitted with LED lights.

ENGADGET: NASA announces competition to improve Robonaut's sight

Inside, the Land Rover Range Rover Sport is all business, with legible gauges and straightforward buttons, switches and dials on the dashboard, console and steering wheel for most functions, with a large LED touchscreen on the center stack used for audio and navigation system operations.

FORBES: 2011 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Review: Born to Run

The microcontroller-driven stage allows anyone to quickly create a piece of miniature theater using handcrafted puppets and an impressive selection of buttons, knobs and switches -- all lovingly handcrafted out of wood on this prototype.

ENGADGET: Insert Coin semifinalist: Make a Play is a high-tech puppet stage

The effect of all these panels is to contemporize the cockpit layout in a way that adds a lot more function while subtracting many more switches and buttons.

WSJ: 2013 Lexus RX 350 F Sport Review: Dashed on the Rocks of the Lexus Dash | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil

We also appreciated that most functions remain governed by standard switches, buttons and dials instead of an annoyingly complex menu-driven multimedia system of the sort that tends to hamper most upscale cars these days.

FORBES: 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon Review: A Hauler that Handles

New proprietary design with pass though buttons allows effortless access to key phone features like volume and mute switches.

ENGADGET: Mophie Juice Pack Air brings an extra 1,700 mAh to iPhone 5 for $100