Imaging Device Touch Controls with Spring-Loaded PCB
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional imaging devices with mechanical UI controls are prone to mechanical failure and lack effective environmental sealing, making them less reliable for providing user interface controls.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of capacitive touch sensors on a printed circuit board (PCB) within a housing, where a springingly biasing tension element ensures proper alignment and alignment with UI control regions, maintaining environmental sealing and reducing mechanical components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If mechanical buttons are used for UI controls, then ease of operation is provided, but reliability deteriorates due to mechanical failure and poor environmental sealing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical buttons with capacitive touch sensors that detect user input through electrical field changes rather than mechanical contact. This eliminates moving parts, mechanical wear, and sealing requirements while maintaining ease of operation, directly resolving the contradiction between operational ease and reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameter from mechanical force (buttons requiring physical pressure) to electrical field interaction (capacitive sensors detecting touch through field changes). This parameter change enables reliable, maintenance-free operation while preserving user interface functionality
2Ease of manufacture
If mechanical buttons are used for UI controls, then ease of manufacture is achieved, but reliability worsens due to susceptibility to mechanical failure
Solution Approach 1:
The capacitive touch sensor implementation replaces complex mechanical button assemblies with integrated circuit board-mounted sensors. This substitution maintains manufacturing simplicity through standard PCB fabrication processes while dramatically improving reliability by eliminating mechanical failure modes
3Reliability
If capacitive touch sensors are used, then reliability is improved by reducing mechanical components, but manufacturing precision requirements increase for sensor alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates alignment features directly into the PCB design and flange structure during the manufacturing planning stage. These pre-built alignment mechanisms ensure precise capacitive sensor positioning without requiring complex post-assembly adjustments, thus maintaining high reliability while managing manufacturing precision requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The flange structure serves as an intermediary component that provides a stable mounting surface and alignment reference for the PCB. This intermediary element facilitates precise sensor positioning by creating a rigid, pre-aligned interface between the housing and the sensor array
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
This solution enhances the robustness and reliability of UI controls by ensuring precise sensor positioning and environmental sealing, reducing mechanical failures and maintaining device functionality.
Implementation Method 1
a springingly biasing tension element positioned within the cavity, the springingly biasing tension element exerting a biasing force against the PCB
Data Source
AI summary
Devices for improving user-interface (UI) controls in an imaging device are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, such imaging devices include a housing having an internal cavity and a window where a flange portion extending around some portion of the window includes touch-enabled UI controls positioned on an exterior surface. On a correspondingly opposite (interior) surface of the flange portion there exists a printed circuit board (PCB) with touch-sensors that correspond to the UI controls. To increase the efficacy of the touch-controls, a spring element is positioned behind the PCB to bias the PCB towards the rear surface of the interior surface of the flange portion and reduce and/or eliminate an air gap between said surface and the sensor(s) and/or the PCB.