Conundrum wrote ...

Well, the article seems to suggest the use of water and oil and an etched micropatterned ITO layer in a glass cell.

Ought to be simple enough, a way to make this work would be to get an old DSi touch screen and split the glass.

Then pattern with a grid of holes and add suitable liquids, using a second blank ITO sheet the same size as your return electrode.

As there is no direct electrical connection between the two sheets the ITO shouldn't degrade.
just polarise it so the net DC is zero like an LCD panel and all should be well.

EDIT:- As this works by capacitance you should be able to overlay the patterned ITO with a very thin layer of non conductor such as UV adhesive, to avoid polarisation issues.