Lever Button Input Apparatus with Transparent Windows
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing button input apparatuses face challenges in providing a good sense of input while being thin, and when thick, they are difficult to assemble due to complexity and structure.
Innovation Solution
A button input apparatus with a display function, featuring lever buttons with transparent windows, an elastic plate, a switch substrate, and a display panel, which generates a switch signal and provides images through the transparent windows, allowing for a thin design and improved user input experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the button input apparatus is made thin, then the portability and aesthetics are improved, but the sense of input for the user deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The button input apparatus is segmented into multiple functional layers: lever buttons at the top, elastic members in the middle, and switch substrates at the bottom. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently - the lever buttons can be made thin for aesthetics while the elastic members and switch substrates provide the necessary mechanical feedback and switching functionality, resolving the contradiction between thinness and input sensation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested structure where lever buttons are positioned over elastic members, which are in turn positioned over switch substrates. This nested arrangement allows the thin lever buttons to transmit input forces through the elastic members to the switch substrates below, maintaining a thin overall profile while preserving the mechanical feedback pathway that provides sense of input.
2Ease of operation
If the button input apparatus is made thick, then the sense of input is improved, but the assembly difficulty and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic elastic members that can deform under pressure and return to their original shape. This dynamic property allows the system to provide tactile feedback without requiring thick rigid structures, simplifying the overall assembly while maintaining the sense of input through the elastic deformation and restoration of the elastic members.
Solution Approach 2:
The use of thin elastic members and flexible lever buttons allows the apparatus to maintain a compact, thin profile while still providing mechanical feedback. These flexible components can be manufactured as thin films or sheets, reducing assembly complexity compared to thick rigid structures, while the elasticity provides the necessary sense of input.
3Loss of information
If transparent windows are added to lever buttons for display function, then the visual information display is improved, but the structural integrity and elastic flexibility may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The lever buttons are constructed as composite structures combining transparent materials (for windows) with opaque or semi-transparent materials (for the button body). This composite construction allows the transparent windows to provide visual display functionality while the surrounding structural materials maintain the structural integrity and elastic flexibility needed for input sensing.
Solution Approach 2:
The lever buttons have non-uniform properties: transparent window regions for display and opaque structural regions for mechanical strength and elasticity. This local differentiation of material properties allows each region to perform its specific function optimally - the transparent windows provide visual information while the structural portions maintain integrity and elastic response.
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 solution enables a thin button input apparatus with a good sense of input, reducing assembly and manufacturing costs while maintaining functionality, and is applicable in portable electronic devices.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic plate, which is a plate shaped member disposed below the plurality of buttons and comprises a plurality of elastic parts
Data Source
AI summary
A button input apparatus with a display function, which generates a switch signal in response to a user's press, and a portable electronic device having the same. The button input apparatus includes: a plurality of lever buttons each having a transparent window in at least a portion thereof, and one fixed edge on one side of the transparent window, so that the buttons are elastically vertically flexible; a switch substrate, which is disposed below the plurality of lever buttons, including openings respectively corresponding to the transparent windows, and generating a switch signal according to a motion of any of the plurality of lever buttons via a plurality of switches disposed to respectively correspond to elastic parts of the lever buttons; and a display panel, which provides an image in an area corresponding to each of the transparent windows, at least a portion of the display panel being disposed below the plurality of lever buttons.