Free-Form Touch Surface Mapping With Relaying Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touch-sensitive technologies struggle to integrate spatially resolved sensors on complex, free-form surfaces, such as those found in transportation vehicle steering wheels, due to the requirement for regularly shaped surfaces and the difficulty in matching sensor foils to curved or irregular shapes.
Innovation Solution
The use of relaying elements with opposing ends, one attached to a free-form surface and the other to a position detection unit, allows for the transfer of touch information from the free-form surface to a flat sensor surface, enabling spatially resolved touch detection on arbitrary shapes by correlating detection positions on the free-form surface with sensor positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If spatially resolved sensors are integrated directly on free-form surfaces, then touch detection capability is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase due to the need for custom-shaped sensor foils
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces relaying elements as intermediaries between the free-form surface and the flat sensor surface. These relaying elements transfer touch information from arbitrary positions on the free-form surface to corresponding positions on the flat sensor surface, enabling touch detection on complex geometries without requiring custom-shaped sensors. This mediator approach resolves the contradiction by maintaining manufacturing simplicity while achieving versatile touch detection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the free-form surface topology on the flat sensor surface through the relaying elements. The sensor surface maintains its simple flat geometry for easy manufacturing, while the relaying elements map touch positions from the complex free-form surface to corresponding positions on the flat sensor, effectively copying the functional requirements without replicating the geometric complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If regular shaped sensor surfaces are used, then manufacturing ease is improved, but adaptability to complex curved surfaces deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The relaying elements serve as intermediaries that bridge the gap between the simple flat sensor surface and the complex free-form application surfaces. They transfer tactile information from any position on the free-form surface to the flat sensor, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while achieving universal adaptability to any surface geometry including highly curved surfaces with small radii of curvature.
Solution Approach 2:
The flat sensor surface designed for easy manufacturing is given universal functionality through the relaying elements. A single flat sensor design can be used with multiple different free-form surfaces (steering wheels, levers, knobs, etc.), making the sensor system universally adaptable to various application geometries without requiring custom sensor shapes for each application.
3Area of stationary object
If touch sensors are integrated on surfaces with small radii of curvature, then comprehensive surface coverage is improved, but sensor matching difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The relaying elements act as intermediaries that eliminate the need for precise sensor-to-surface matching on curved geometries. They can be positioned at any location on the free-form surface (including areas with small radii of curvature) and will transfer touch information to the flat sensor surface, maintaining comprehensive surface coverage while avoiding the manufacturing precision challenges of matching sensors to complex curves.
4Reliability
If conductive relaying elements are used for touch detection, then signal transfer capability is improved, but electrostatic discharge protection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The insulating material serves as a protective intermediary between the conductive relaying elements and the external environment. The conductive elements maintain their signal transfer functionality while being enclosed and protected by the insulating material, which shields them from electrostatic discharge and other environmental harmful factors, thus resolving the contradiction between signal transfer reliability and electrostatic protection.
Data Source
AI summary
A device including a touch-sensitive free-form surface, the free-form surface having an outer surface and a position detection unit having a sensor surface. The sensor surface and the free-form surface have different geometric shapes, and switching elements are arranged between the sensor surface and the free-form surface, each having a first end and an opposing second end. The first ends are assigned to different detection positions on the free-form surface, and the second ends are assigned to different sensor positions on the sensor surface of the position detection unit so that touches of the free-form surface are transmitted to the sensor surface via the switching elements and are spatially detected by the position detection unit. Also disclosed is a method for producing such a device.