Flexible Substrate Adaptive Keyboard Key Screens
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Solution Overview
Problem
The construction of computer keyboards with electronic displays on each key is laborious and costly due to the need to fix and wire individual displays, posing challenges in manufacturing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive keyboard design featuring key screens cut from a single flexible substrate, where each key screen remains electrically connected to the substrate via a connector portion, allowing for simplified manufacturing and cost-effective production, using image-producing elements like OLEDs or electrophoretic materials, and flexible transistors to enable display functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If individual displays are fixed on each key and wired together, then display functionality is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and labor cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple key screens are formed on a single flexible substrate and remain electrically connected to each other through the substrate, eliminating the need for separate wiring of each display. The substrate itself serves as the electrical connection medium, merging the functions of substrate support and electrical interconnection.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible substrate serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical support for the key screens, enables electrical connection between screens through its conductive properties, and allows for flexible positioning and orientation of individual keys. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional components and simplifies the overall structure.
2Productivity
If individual displays are fixed on each key, then display functionality is achieved, but labor cost and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple key screens are pre-formed on a single flexible substrate in an array configuration before final assembly. This preliminary arrangement allows for batch processing and pre-positioning of displays, reducing the time required during final keyboard assembly since the screens are already positioned and electrically connected.
3Ease of manufacture
If key screens are cut from flexible substrate, then manufacturing is simplified, but electrical connectivity must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible substrate is cut to separate individual key screens from the main array, allowing each key to have its own screen. However, the cuts are designed to preserve electrical connection paths through the substrate material itself, maintaining reliability while enabling individual screen replacement or flexibility in key layout.
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments related to an adaptive keyboard cut from a single flexible substrate are provided. One disclosed embodiment of an adaptive input device comprises a flexible substrate, and a plurality of key screens defined in the flexible substrate via cuts in the flexible substrate. The key screens are cut such that each key screen remains electrically connected to the flexible substrate, and each key screen comprises an image producing element configured to display an image on the key screen. The adaptive input device further comprises a keyboard comprising a plurality of keys disposed over the flexible substrate, where each key screen is turned upwardly from the flexible substrate to cover a corresponding key on the keyboard.