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Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback

A technology of force sensor and touch panel, which is applied in the direction of instruments, gymnastics equipment, sports accessories, etc.

Active Publication Date: 2012-10-03
APPLE INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0007] While this type of touchpad is generally satisfactory, it can be challenging to operate the integrated button when pressing the touchpad near the rear edge
It is also challenging in meeting the wide variety of user expectations regarding touchpad sensitivity and operation

Method used

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  • Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback
  • Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback
  • Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback

Examples

Experimental program
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Embodiment Construction

[0052] The electronic device may be provided with a touch sensitive user input device. Touch sensitive user input devices may include touch screens or, more typically, touch pads. Touchpads, sometimes called trackpads, are commonly used in electronic devices such as portable computers. The touchpad can also be implemented as a stand-alone device. For example, the touchpad may be provided with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable that enables the touchpad to be plugged into a USB port of a computer. Touchpads can also be found in industrial and commercial equipment, in computer mice, keyboards, game consoles, and the like. For clarity, the use of a touchpad in a laptop computer (ie, as a laptop computer trackpad) is sometimes described herein as an example. However, this is only exemplary. Touchpads and other touch-sensitive input devices may be implemented as part of any suitable electronic device.

[0053] A touchpad may include force sensors and touch sensor circuitry. H...

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PUM

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Abstract

Electronic devices may use touch pads that have touch sensor arrays, force sensors, and actuators for providing tactile feedback. A touch pad may be mounted in a computer housing. The touch pad may have a rectangular planar touch pad member that has a glass layer covered with ink and contains a capacitive touch sensor array. Force sensors may be mounted under each of the four corners of the rectangular planar touch pad member. The force sensors may be used to measure how much force is applied to the surface of the planar touch pad member by a user. Processed force sensor signals may indicate the presence of button activity such as press and release events. In response to detected button activity or other activity in the device, actuator drive signals may be generated for controlling the actuator. The user may supply settings to adjust signal processing and tactile feedback parameters.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority to US Patent Application Serial No. 12 / 635,614, filed December 10, 2009, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0002] The present application relates generally to touch-sensitive input devices, and more particularly, to touchpads for electronic devices such as portable computers. Background technique [0003] An electronic device such as a laptop computer has a touchpad for receiving user input. The touchpad can also be provided as a separate unit that connects to the computer. [0004] A touchpad typically has a rectangular surface that monitors the position of a user's finger or other external object. A user can interact with the touchpad by controlling the position of the user's fingertip on the surface of the touchpad. The touchpad can be used to control the position of a cursor on the computer display screen or perform other appropriate actions. In a multi-touch touchpad arrangemen...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G06F3/041G06F3/044G06F3/01
CPCG06F3/041G06F3/0414G06F3/044G06F3/016G06F3/045A63B2022/0092G06F3/0416G06F2203/04105G06F3/0446G06F1/1662G06F1/1692G06F3/0227G06F3/03547G06F2203/04104G09G5/006G06F1/1613G06F2203/04103
Inventor J·T·贝尔斯丁A·西普林斯基B·W·德格纳D·克尔P·凯瑟勒P·普斯卡里奇M·H·克埃略A·潘瑟
Owner APPLE INC
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