Leveled Touchsurface Mechanism for Thin Keyboard Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional keyboards face limitations in thinness due to the mechanical complexity of scissor mechanisms and rubber domes, which obscure backlighting and compromise the snap-over feel of keypresses, making it difficult to achieve a satisfying tactile experience while maintaining a thin profile.
Innovation Solution
A leveled touchsurface with planar translational responsiveness to vertical travel, utilizing a mechanism that constrains the key to remain level and imparts a planar translation during keypress, allowing for diagonal movement while maintaining a thin profile without the need for scissor mechanisms or rubber domes, using magnetic forces and inclined planes to simulate a deeper key travel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If scissor mechanisms and rubber domes are used to provide key leveling and tactile feedback, then keypress stability and tactile experience are improved, but keyboard thickness increases and backlighting is obscured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the scissor mechanism and rubber dome from the keyboard assembly, replacing them with a planar translation mechanism that uses inclined planes and magnetic forces. This extraction eliminates the thickness and light-blocking issues while maintaining key stability through a different mechanical approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical rubber dome system with a planar translation mechanism using inclined planes and magnetic forces. This substitution maintains the tactile feedback function while reducing thickness and improving light transmission, as the new mechanism requires less vertical space.
2Stability of the object's composition
If scissor mechanisms are used to level the key during keypress, then key wobbling and tilting are reduced, but mechanical complexity and assembly difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the scissor mechanism entirely and replaces it with a planar translation mechanism using inclined planes. This simplifies the mechanical structure while maintaining key levelness through the geometric constraint of the inclined plane, which naturally guides the key to move horizontally during compression.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a planar translation mechanism as an intermediary between the key and the base. This mechanism uses inclined planes to convert vertical compression into horizontal movement, providing a simpler mechanical path that maintains key stability without the complexity of interlocking scissor blades.
3Length of stationary object
If rubber domes and scissor mechanisms are reduced to thinnest proportions, then keyboard thickness is reduced, but the snap-over feel of keypress becomes ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the dimension of key movement from purely vertical to include a horizontal component. By using inclined planes, the mechanism converts vertical compression into horizontal planar translation, creating a tactile sensation that simulates deeper key travel while maintaining thin overall thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the movement parameters of the key from vertical-only displacement to combined vertical and horizontal displacement. The inclined plane mechanism transforms the compression force into a diagonal movement path, creating a perceptible tactile feedback that mimics traditional key travel distance in a thinner profile.
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 effectively reduces wobbling and tilting, provides a satisfying tactile experience, and allows for thinner keyboard construction without sacrificing key travel feel, as users perceive a greater vertical distance due to combined normal and lateral forces, enabling keyboards to be constructed under 3.0 mm thick while maintaining quality.
Implementation Method 1
magnetic forces and inclined planes to simulate a deeper key travel
Implementation Method 2
magnetic forces and inclined planes to simulate a deeper key travel
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are techniques related to a leveled touchsurface with planar translational responsiveness to vertical travel. Examples of a touchsurface include a key of a keyboard, touchpad of a laptop, or a touchscreen of a smartphone or tablet computer. With the techniques described herein, the touchsurface is constrained to remain in a level orientation while a user presses the touchsurface like a button or key. Also, with the techniques described herein, a planar-translation-effecting mechanism imparts a planar translation to the touchsurface while it travels vertically (e.g., downward) as the user presses the touchsurface. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.