Angled Keypad Keys for Compact Handheld Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Handheld electronic devices with small form factors often have small, difficult-to-locate and actuate keys, making it challenging for users to operate them effectively.
Innovation Solution
A keypad with keys arranged in a stepped layout and oriented obliquely to facilitate easy identification and actuation, featuring protruding corners and relief surfaces to enhance tactile and visual distinction, allowing for comfortable and precise key activation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the handheld electronic device has a small form factor, then the device size is reduced, but the keys become difficult for users to locate and actuate
Solution Approach 1:
The engagement surfaces of the keys are oriented at oblique angles relative to the actuation axis, creating localized tactile variations on key surfaces. This allows each key to have distinct directional characteristics that facilitate easy location and actuation even when keys are small in size
Solution Approach 2:
The key engagement surfaces are tilted at oblique angles rather than being perpendicular to the actuation axis. This introduces an angular dimension to key interaction, allowing users to locate and actuate keys more easily by feeling the angled surfaces with their fingers
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
Figure 3~3A
AI summary
An improved keypad for a handheld electronic device has keys wherein the engagement surface thereof is oriented oblique to the actuation axis of the key. The oblique arrangement of the engagement surfaces visually and tactually distinguishes one key from another, which facilitates their incorporation into various handheld electronic devices with relatively small form factors.