Thin Keyboard Structure with Membrane Acoustic Feedback
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Simplified keyboard structures lack the ability to produce a proper hit sound, making it difficult for users to maintain a good typing tempo due to reduced support and elastic structures.
Innovation Solution
A keyboard structure featuring a keycap, a transparent membrane layer with a hard membrane and spacer layer, an elastic element, and a light emitting element that generates sound through bending deformation and elastic recovery, allowing for a clear and loud hit sound while maintaining a thin design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the keyboard structure is simplified and the height of the support structure is reduced to make the electronic product lighter and thinner, then the overall keyboard size is reduced, but the keyboard cannot produce a proper hit sound and the typing tempo cannot be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a transparent membrane layer with a hard membrane layer that acts as a flexible thin film structure. This membrane layer can deform elastically when the keycap is pressed and produces a hit sound during recovery, achieving both thin profile and audible feedback without requiring traditional mechanical bearings
Solution Approach 2:
The extension portion of the hard membrane layer serves as an intermediary element between the keycap and the underlying structure. It deforms in the gap formed by the spacer layer and generates the hit sound, mediating the interaction between the simplified structure and the user's typing experience
2Device complexity
If the keyboard structure is simplified without keyboard bearings, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability of producing proper hit sound and press feedback is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The transparent membrane layer with its extension portion is designed to automatically produce the hit sound through its own elastic deformation. The structure serves itself by using the membrane's inherent elasticity to generate acoustic feedback, eliminating the need for separate bearing components while maintaining reliable hit sound production
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the membrane layer, including its thickness, material properties, and the dimensions of the extension portion, to optimize the hit sound characteristics. By adjusting these parameters, the simplified structure achieves reliable acoustic feedback without traditional mechanical 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
The keyboard structure effectively produces a clear and loud hit sound during elastic recovery, enabling users to maintain a good typing tempo, and reduces overall thickness by incorporating a light emitting element.
Implementation Method 1
the elastic element is deformed to enable the press portion to move downward
Implementation Method 2
the extension portion is elastically recovered and generates a sound
Implementation Method 3
the extension portion is elastically recovered and generates a sound
Implementation Method 4
the light emitting element is used for generating a light beam
Implementation Method 5
is diffused to the keycap through the transparent membrane layer
Data Source
AI summary
A keyboard structure, including: a keycap; a transparent membrane layer; and an elastic element, disposed between the keycap and the transparent membrane layer and having a press portion, where the transparent membrane layer includes: a first opening corresponding to the keycap; a hard membrane layer, having an extension portion that is formed at an inner edge of the first opening inner edge; and a spacer layer, disposed under the hard membrane layer and used for forming a gap. When the keycap is pressed with an external force, the elastic element is deformed to enable the press portion to move downward and abut against the extension portion, so that the extension portion generates a bending deformation in the gap; and when the external force is released, the elastic element and the extension portion are elastically recovered and the extension portion generates a sound.