Pivoting Touchscreen Display With Mechanical Switch
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touchscreen input/output devices on portable electronic devices lack tactile quality, leading to a poor user experience due to their inability to provide positive feedback for user input.
Innovation Solution
A portable electronic device design featuring a moveable touchscreen display with a single mechanical switch that actuates when sufficient force is applied, providing a tactile response to user interaction, while the touchscreen display pivots relative to the housing about a pivot axis depending on the force location.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a touchscreen display is used in a portable electronic device, then the device size can be reduced and space for input/output devices is minimized, but the device lacks tactile quality and provides poor user feedback
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines a mechanical switch with a touchscreen display into an integrated assembly. The mechanical switch is positioned behind the touchscreen and actuates when the touchscreen is pressed, merging the visual display function with tactile feedback function into a single unified input device. This allows the device to maintain small size while providing both visual and tactile feedback to the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical switch acts as an intermediary between the touchscreen display and the device's internal components. When the user presses the touchscreen, the mechanical switch translates this pressure into a discrete actuation event that can be detected by the device's circuitry, providing tangible feedback while maintaining the touchscreen's visual interface capabilities.
2Ease of operation
If multiple input devices are provided for user interaction, then tactile feedback can be improved, but the device complexity and space requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the touchscreen display and mechanical switch into a single integrated assembly where the mechanical switch is positioned directly behind the touchscreen surface. This integration allows both visual and tactile input functions to be provided within one compact unit, avoiding the need for separate buttons or input devices that would increase overall device complexity and space requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated touchscreen-mechanical switch assembly serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides visual display capability, touch input detection, and tactile feedback through mechanical actuation. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate dedicated input devices, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining enhanced user interaction capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A portable electronic device includes a housing with a front frame; a moveable touch-screen display framed by the front frame of the housing, the moveable touch-screen display including a touch-sensitive input surface overlying a display device, the front frame including corners curved outwardly away from the surface of the touchscreen display; a mechanical switch disposed between a back surface of the touchscreen display and a base of the housing; and operational components including a processor within the housing and connected to the touchscreen display. The touchscreen display moves or pivots relative to the housing about a pivot axis in response to application of sufficient force on the touchscreen. This movement or pivoting results in the actuation of the single mechanical switch and the pivot axis depending on the location of application of the force.