Retractable Keyboard Keys Diagonal Travel Mechanism
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pressable touch surfaces in input devices, such as keyboards and keypads, lack improved usability, leading to suboptimal tactile feedback and increased device thickness, which hinders user experience and industrial design flexibility.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of retractable key assemblies with a bezel, key holding features, and planar-translation mechanisms that allow keycaps to move diagonally, enhancing tactile feel through vertical-lateral travel and enabling easier assembly and thinner device profiles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional pressable touch surfaces are used, then tactile feedback is provided, but device thickness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dimensional change by transitioning from purely vertical key travel to diagonal key travel. The keycap moves along a diagonal path combining vertical and lateral components, allowing the same tactile feedback to be achieved with reduced vertical travel distance, thereby reducing overall device thickness while maintaining user-perceived tactile response.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic key travel paths where the keycap can move diagonally rather than strictly vertically. This dynamic movement allows the key to achieve sufficient tactile displacement in a more space-efficient manner, reducing the required device thickness while preserving the tactile feedback experience.
2Ease of operation
If conventional key structures are used, then tactile feedback is achieved, but industrial design flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The dynamic diagonal key travel mechanism provides design flexibility by allowing varying degrees of lateral and vertical movement. This enables different key layouts, angles, and travel paths to be implemented based on specific device design requirements, enhancing industrial design versatility while maintaining tactile feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
By introducing lateral movement dimension to key travel, the patent enables more varied key configurations and layouts. This additional degree of freedom allows designers to create different key geometries, angles, and arrangements, significantly improving industrial design flexibility.
3Ease of operation
If vertical key travel is increased for better tactile feedback, then tactile feedback improves, but device thickness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by distributing the tactile travel requirement across two dimensions: vertical and lateral. The diagonal key path allows the keycap to achieve sufficient total displacement for tactile feedback while reducing the vertical component, thereby maintaining tactile quality without increasing device thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamic diagonal travel path allows the key to optimize its movement trajectory, achieving effective tactile feedback with reduced vertical travel distance. This dynamic approach enables the same tactile perception with less vertical space requirement, reducing device thickness.
Data Source
AI summary
A laptop computer comprising a keyboard including a bezel having a plurality of key openings and a plurality of key holding features configured adjacent to the plurality of key openings on a bottom side of the bezel. The laptop computer also includes a plurality of keycaps having a touch surface for receiving a press force, each keycap positioned within a respective one of the plurality of key openings. The laptop computer also includes a chassis having a plurality of planar-translation effecting mechanisms each supporting a respective one of the plurality of keycaps such that, in response to receiving the press force, the respective keycap moves in a press direction and a second direction orthogonal to the press direction from an unpressed position toward a pressed position.