Haptic Cover Plate Suspension to Prevent Tilting Under Touch

The patent introduces guide elements as intermediary components between the spring-loaded suspension and the cover plate. These guide elements act as mediators that constrain the cover plate's movement to prevent tilting while still allowing the necessary relative motion for haptic signal generation. The guide elements transmit and guide the forces between the suspension and cover plate, ensuring reliable force sensing.

The patent segments the suspension system by introducing multiple guide elements distributed across the cover plate area. This segmentation allows each guide element to independently prevent tilting at its location, and collectively they maintain force sensing reliability across the entire large-area cover plate. The guide elements are distributed to provide localized constraint throughout the extended surface.

The guide elements serve as mechanical intermediaries that transmit vibrational energy from the single actuator to the entire cover plate surface. When the actuator generates haptic signals, the guide elements efficiently transmit these vibrations across the large cover plate area, enabling broad coverage without requiring multiple actuators. The guide elements act as mechanical waveguides for the haptic signals.