Flexible Surface Material with Integrated Sensors for Vehicle Interiors
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flexible surface materials with integrated sensors and actuators face challenges in adapting to environmental changes and user-specific settings within motor vehicle interiors, particularly due to difficulties in integrating sensors into stretchable and temperature-fluctuating materials, leading to complex designs and confusing operation interfaces.
Innovation Solution
A flexible planar material with integrated sensor and signal elements, connected to an electronic control unit, allows for adaptive changes in response to external influences and user interactions, utilizing conductive layers and textile structures for inductive, capacitive, or triboelectric reactions, and actuators that adjust the surface based on control signals generated by algorithms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If sensors are integrated into flexible surface materials with textured or embossed surfaces, then the user interface becomes more intuitive and functional, but the integration becomes difficult due to extreme stretching during manufacturing and application to rigid substrates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a flexible film substrate with integrated sensor elements that can stretch and deform without damage. The film is designed to be applied to curved or irregular surfaces while maintaining sensor functionality, solving the problem of integrating sensors into flexible, textured materials that undergo extreme stretching during manufacturing and application.
2Ease of operation
If multiple separate controls, switches, and buttons are embedded in surfaces, then vehicle functions can be controlled, but the design is disrupted and operation becomes confusing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple control functions into a single integrated touch-sensitive surface. Instead of separate buttons and switches, the flexible film incorporates multiple sensor elements that can detect touches at different locations, allowing control of various vehicle functions through a unified, intuitive interface that does not disrupt the design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the control functionality from physical mechanical buttons and switches, removing them from the surface entirely. The sensor elements detect touches through the flexible film without requiring raised or embossed features, creating a flat, design-friendly interface that is easier to operate.
3Adaptability or versatility
If flexible surface materials are used for interior trim, then aesthetic appeal and comfort are improved, but integrating sensors and actuators becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a composite structure by integrating sensor elements and actuator components directly into the flexible film layers. The film itself becomes part of the sensor system, with conductive layers or patterns embedded within the flexible material, allowing aesthetic surface materials to simultaneously provide sensing and actuation functions without adding separate complex components.
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 intuitive and individualized adjustments to vehicle settings, enhancing user comfort and safety by allowing the surface material to react naturally to loads and environmental changes, optimizing seating positions and maintaining uniformity across different load cases.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing conductive layers and textile structures for inductive, capacitive, or triboelectric reactions
Implementation Method 2
utilizing conductive layers and textile structures for inductive, capacitive, or triboelectric reactions
Implementation Method 3
utilizing conductive layers and textile structures for inductive, capacitive, or triboelectric reactions
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a flexible surface material comprising built-in sensor or signal elements, preferably for a pad, in which actuators or adjusting elements are in interaction with the surface material, both the sensor or signal elements and the actuators or adjusting elements being respectively associated with defined areas of the surface material, and the sensor or signal elements being designed and arranged such that state variables of the defined areas of the surface material, which can be modified by outside influences, can be detected and transmitted to a control appliance as corresponding sensor signals, the actuators or adjusting elements being arranged such that the surface material or the state variables thereof in the defined areas can be modifed by the actuators or adjusting elements activated on the basis of the adjusting signals, and the adjusting signals can be produced in the control appliance, as a result of the sensor signals, according to pre-defined algorithms.