Electronic Ink Keyboard Keys for Accessible Self-Service Terminals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Self-service terminals, such as ATMs, face challenges in accommodating different keyboard layouts and usability for individuals with disabilities, particularly those who are visually impaired or have limited upper limb mobility, as existing keyboards lack flexibility and provide inadequate tactile feedback.
Innovation Solution
A self-service terminal with a keyboard featuring individually operable keys using electronic ink displays, controlled by a CPU, allowing for customizable layouts and tactile feedback, enabling users to input information through a limited number of buttons that can display text, images, or characters, and provide vibration for blind users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a fixed layout keyboard is used, then manufacturing is simplified, but adaptability to different layouts and user needs deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard keys are equipped with electronic ink displays that can dynamically change their content and layout configuration. The keys can be reprogrammed to display different characters, symbols, or functions, allowing the keyboard layout to adapt to different languages, applications, and user preferences without requiring physical reconfiguration or manufacturing changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The electronic ink displays on the keys allow for parameter changes in the displayed information. The same physical key can display different content based on programming, enabling flexible layout changes, language switches, and function reassignments without altering the physical structure of the keyboard.
2Ease of operation
If traditional keyboards are used, then tactile feedback is provided, but accessibility for visually impaired users deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is divided into individually programmable keys, each with its own electronic ink display. This segmentation allows each key to be independently configured to provide both tactile feedback through its physical structure and visual information through its display, enabling customized accessibility solutions for different users with different disabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The keys serve multiple functions: they provide tactile feedback through their physical structure, visual information through electronic ink displays, and can be programmed to assist users with various disabilities. The same key can function as a standard input key, a Braille indicator, a tactile guide, or a visual display element, making the keyboard universally accessible.
3Adaptability or versatility
If touch screens are used, then layout flexibility is improved, but tactile response deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the advantages of both traditional physical keyboards and touch screens by combining electronic ink displays with physical key structures. Each key maintains its tactile properties for physical pressing while incorporating an electronic ink display that provides visual feedback and layout flexibility, creating a hybrid interface that offers both tactile response and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A self service terminal comprises a keyboard including a plurality of separate, individually operable keys having user engageable surfaces. Each key includes a display having an image thereon which is produced by electronic ink. The terminal further comprises a central processing unit (CPU) connected to the keyboard and arranged to control each display to control the image displayed by each respective display.