Multi-transducer tactile interface for electronic devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic devices can only provide tactile feedback through vibrations, failing to stimulate the user's sense of touch in other ways, limiting the richness of user interaction and experience.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a tactile user interface with a surface that includes friction, force, and thermal transducers, such as electrostatic plates, ultrasonic, and piezoelectric elements, to provide a range of tactile outputs and inputs, including temperature changes, friction variations, and force deformations, enhancing user interaction and experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional vibrating mechanisms are used for tactile feedback, then the device can provide vibration output, but the device cannot stimulate the user's sense of touch in other manners
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple types of transducers (electrostatic, ultrasonic, piezoelectric, thermal) into a single integrated tactile interface system. These transducers work together to provide diverse tactile sensations through a unified interface, allowing the device to stimulate touch through friction modification, force application, and temperature change while maintaining a cohesive system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The tactile interface is designed to perform multiple functions through different transducer types: electrostatic transducers modify friction, ultrasonic transducers generate vibrations, piezoelectric transducers apply force, and thermal transducers control temperature. This multi-functional approach allows a single interface to replace what would traditionally require separate mechanisms for each tactile sensation type.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple transducer types are integrated to provide diverse tactile outputs, then the tactile feedback richness is enhanced, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The tactile interface is divided into multiple independently controllable transducer elements that can be activated selectively based on the desired tactile effect. Each transducer type (electrostatic, ultrasonic, piezoelectric, thermal) can be addressed separately, allowing the system to provide specific tactile sensations without requiring all transducers to operate simultaneously, thus simplifying control complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses an outer protective layer with a surface that serves as an intermediary between the transducers and the user's touch. This surface acts as a common interface through which all transducer types interact with the user, unifying the interaction method while allowing diverse underlying mechanisms to operate independently beneath the surface.
3Ease of operation
If friction transducers are used to modify surface friction, then tactile interaction is enhanced, but the mechanism requires additional components beyond conventional vibrators
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical friction modification mechanisms with electrostatic transducers that use electrical fields to alter surface friction properties. Instead of mechanical contact or moving parts to change friction, the electrostatic field directly modifies the interaction between the surface and the user's finger, providing friction control without mechanical complexity.
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
Enables a more immersive user experience by stimulating multiple senses simultaneously, allowing for richer tactile feedback and input capabilities, such as perceiving virtual surfaces and objects with varying textures and temperatures, and enabling advanced interaction methods.
Implementation Method 1
The friction transducer can include an electrostatic plate and an ultrasonic transducer
Implementation Method 2
The friction transducer can include an electrostatic plate and an ultrasonic transducer
Implementation Method 3
The force transducer may be configured to locally deform the surface
Implementation Method 4
The thermal transducer may be configured to increase or decrease the temperature of the surface
Implementation Method 5
Incorporating a tactile user interface with a surface that includes friction, force, and thermal transducers, such as electrostatic plates, ultrasonic, and piezoelectric elements
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing localized tactile output and systems and methods for obtaining localized physical characteristic information are disclosed. An electronic device can include a friction transducer configured to augment and/or detect friction between a surface of an electronic device and an object in contact with that electronic device. The electronic device may also include a force transducer configured to detect the force with which an object contacts a display. The force transducer may also provide mechanical output. The electronic device can also include a thermal transducer to augment and/or detect the temperature of various locations on a display.