Haptic Voice Navigation for Touch Interfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch screens in consumer devices lack effective navigational assistance for users, particularly in situations where visual access is limited, and existing solutions do not adequately provide feedback for users interacting with content.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a haptic and auditory navigational assistance system that provides vibrations and voice cues when a user interacts with navigational assistance areas on a touch screen, allowing users to navigate and select content without visual reference, and reinforcing interactions even when the interface is visible.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If visual display is used for navigation, then information presentation is improved, but accessibility for users with visual limitations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces haptic feedback as an intermediary between the visual display and the user. When a user touches the screen, the system generates localized haptic feedback at the touch point, serving as a mediator that provides tactile confirmation of interaction without requiring visual input. This allows users with visual limitations to navigate and interact with the device effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the feedback mechanism by providing localized haptic feedback at specific touch points rather than uniform feedback across the entire screen. Each navigational element can have its own haptic characteristics, allowing differentiated tactile responses for different functions while maintaining information presentation integrity.
2Ease of operation
If haptic feedback is added to touch screen, then interaction feedback is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the existing touchscreen serve multiple functions: visual input, tactile input, and haptic feedback output. By utilizing the touchscreen's dual role as both display and input surface, the system adds haptic feedback capabilities without requiring completely separate hardware systems, thereby reducing the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the feedback mechanisms by integrating haptic feedback with the existing touchscreen interface. Rather than adding separate visual and tactile feedback systems, the system combines them into a unified interaction model where the touchscreen provides both visual display and tactile feedback, simplifying the overall system architecture.
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 users to operate touch screen devices without visual access and enhances interaction feedback, improving usability and accessibility by combining tactile and auditory feedback.
Implementation Method 1
the haptic navigational cue may correspond to the user device (or a portion thereof) or the display (or a portion thereof) vibrating
Implementation Method 2
the auditory navigational cue may correspond to a voice that states a name and/or some other identifier associated with the navigational assistance area
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes displaying a user interface on a touch display, receiving a user input on the touch display, determining whether the user input is associated with a navigational assistance area of the user interface, outputting one or more vibrations, when it is determined that the user input is associated with the navigational assistance area of the user interface, and outputting an auditory navigational cue that corresponds to a name associated with the navigational assistance area, when it is determined that the user input is associated with the navigational assistance area of the user interface.