Fan-Driven Force Device for Tactile Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic devices rely heavily on visual and auditory feedback, which can overwhelm users, leading to information saturation and potentially dangerous situations, especially in scenarios where attention is diverted from critical tasks like driving or navigation.
Innovation Solution
The use of force devices equipped with fans and control modules that exert linear and rotational forces on users to provide information and alerts without overwhelming their visual and auditory channels, assisting in maintaining balance and posture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If visual and auditory feedback are used to convey information to a user, then detailed information can be communicated, but the user's visual and auditory channels become information-saturated and the user may be unable to effectively receive additional information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces tactile feedback as a third dimension of information delivery, moving beyond the traditional two-dimensional visual and auditory channels. By applying forces to the user's hand through a haptic interface, the system creates a new sensory dimension for conveying information, allowing multiple types of feedback to occur simultaneously without channel saturation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments information delivery across multiple independent sensory channels (visual, auditory, and tactile). Each channel can convey different types of information independently, allowing the system to deliver detailed information through one channel while providing alerts or notifications through another, preventing any single channel from becoming overwhelmed.
2Loss of information
If visual feedback is provided to a user during critical tasks like driving or navigation, then navigation instructions can be conveyed, but the user's attention is diverted from the critical task, potentially compromising safety
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the user's hand as an intermediary medium for receiving navigation information. Instead of requiring the user to visually process navigation instructions, the system translates navigation directions into tactile force patterns applied to the hand, allowing the user to receive guidance information through a peripheral sensory channel that does not compete for attention with the primary task of driving or navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent moves navigation information delivery from the visual dimension to the tactile dimension. By encoding navigation instructions as haptic feedback patterns, the system allows users to receive directional guidance through touch while maintaining visual attention on the road or primary task, effectively separating information reception from the attention-demanding primary task.
3Reliability
If force devices are used to provide non-visual and non-auditory feedback, then user attention can be maintained on critical tasks, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical force generation systems with an electromagnetic actuator. The actuator uses electromagnetic fields to generate precise force patterns, eliminating the need for complex mechanical linkages, motors, and transmission mechanisms. This substitution maintains the ability to deliver tactile feedback while significantly reducing device complexity and improving reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables effective communication of instructions and alerts without diverting attention, enhancing user safety by providing non-visual and non-auditory feedback that maintains user awareness and balance.
Implementation Method 1
The fans 110 are configured to generate thrust to exert linear forces and rotational forces on the user
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 2
AI summary
A system for exerting forces on a user. The system includes a user-mounted device including one or more force exerting devices, one or more sensors configured to acquire sensor data, and a processor coupled to the one or more force exerting devices and to the one or more sensors. The processor is configured to determine, based on the sensor data, at least one of an orientation and a position associated with the user-mounted device. The processor is further configured to compute a force to be exerted on the user via the one or more force exerting devices based on a force direction associated with a force event and at least one of the orientation and the position, and generate a control signal for the one or more force exerting devices based on the force.