Multi-Touchpad Keyboard Mapping for Accurate, Intuitive Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current keyboard devices lack enhancements in user convenience, particularly in the integration and coordination of touchpad operations for efficient and accurate input on information processing apparatuses.
Innovation Solution
A keyboard device incorporating touchpads with capacitive or pressure-sensitive sensors, a memory to store mapping information, and circuitry to identify and output codes based on touchpad operations, allowing for enhanced user interaction and reduced erroneous inputs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple touchpads are integrated into the keyboard device, then user convenience and input accuracy are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard device is segmented into multiple independent touchpads (first touchpad and second touchpad) positioned at different locations. Each touchpad can detect operations independently, allowing the system to distinguish between different user intentions based on which touchpad was activated and what operation was performed. This segmentation enables enhanced functionality while maintaining manageable complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard device integrates multiple touchpads that can perform various operations (tap, drag, pinch, rotate) and map these operations to different keyboard functions. The same touchpad hardware can serve multiple purposes depending on the operation type and mapping information stored in memory, making the system highly versatile without requiring separate dedicated components for each function.
2Measurement precision
If mapping information is stored for each combination of touchpad operations, then input accuracy is improved, but memory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-stores mapping information in memory that defines how different touchpad operations (tap, drag, pinch, rotate) on different touchpads correspond to specific keyboard functions or codes. This preliminary mapping allows the keyboard device to quickly and accurately translate touch operations into appropriate keyboard inputs without requiring complex real-time processing, thereby achieving high input accuracy while optimizing memory usage through efficient data structures.
Data Source
AI summary
A keyboard device includes a key switch corresponding to a character, a plurality of touchpads, a memory to store mapping information, a communication interface to communicate with an information processing apparatus, and circuitry. In the mapping information, a code to be output to the information processing apparatus is set for each combination of operations on the plurality of touchpads. When a combination of operations on the plurality of touchpads is received, the circuitry identifies a code corresponding to the combination of operations on the plurality of touchpads based on the mapping information and outputs the identified code to the information processing apparatus via the communication interface.