Retrofit Touchless Interface With Haptic Feedback for Touchscreens
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current touchless Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) are inferior to touch-based systems in terms of speed, intuitiveness, and tactile feedback, limiting their adoption in everyday applications, particularly in high-traffic areas where touch-based interfaces pose infection transmission risks.
Innovation Solution
A retrofit solution that integrates capacitive sensors and touch-actuation components to provide touchless user input for existing touch-based devices, utilizing sonic wave transmission for haptic feedback and visual or auditory cues to enhance user experience, allowing for intuitive and practical interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If touchless HMI systems are implemented to reduce infection transmission risks, then health safety is improved, but user experience and interaction intuitiveness deteriorate due to lack of tactile feedback
Solution Approach 1:
A mechanical actuator serves as an intermediary component that physically presses the touchscreen button on behalf of the user. The actuator is controlled by a motor in response to touchless gestures (such as hand waves or air taps detected by capacitive sensors), thereby transmitting the user's intent to the touchscreen interface without direct contact. This mediator resolves the contradiction by enabling touchless operation while maintaining the tactile feedback experience through the physical pressing action.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the direct mechanical contact between user finger and touchscreen with an automated mechanical actuation system. The actuator mechanism (driven by motor, solenoid, or other actuation means) substitutes for the human finger's mechanical pressing action, allowing the touchscreen to receive proper press inputs while the user remains contactless. This substitution maintains the mechanical interaction quality expected by users while eliminating infection risk.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If current touchless HMI systems are used, then contactless interaction is achieved, but interaction speed and responsiveness worsen compared to touch-based systems
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of user intent through touchless gestures (hand waves, air taps) before triggering the actual button press. The capacitive sensors continuously monitor for approaching hands or gesturing motions, and once detected, the actuator is immediately activated to press the button. This preliminary detection and rapid response mechanism maintains interaction speed comparable to direct touch by anticipating and quickly executing the user's intended action.
Solution Approach 2:
The actuator as intermediary enables rapid transmission of user intent to the touchscreen interface. When the control system detects a touchless gesture, it immediately commands the actuator to press the corresponding button, creating a fast response chain that mimics the speed of direct finger pressing. This intermediary mechanism eliminates the delays associated with processing touchless gestures while maintaining responsiveness.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If retrofit touchless interfaces are implemented, then health safety and touchless interaction are improved, but device complexity increases due to additional components
Solution Approach 1:
The retrofit system is segmented into three independent functional modules: (1) touchless gesture detection module using capacitive sensors, (2) actuation module using motor-driven actuators, and (3) control module that processes gestures and commands the actuator. This segmentation allows each module to be optimized independently and facilitates easier installation and maintenance, reducing the perceived complexity despite adding multiple components.
Solution Approach 2:
The actuator mechanism serves multiple functions: it physically presses touchscreen buttons, provides tactile feedback through vibration motors, and can be controlled through various touchless gesture types (hand waves, air taps, finger points). This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components for each function, thereby managing system complexity while delivering comprehensive touchless interaction capabilities.
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 intuitive and efficient touchless interaction with common touch-based devices by providing tactile feedback and maintaining compatibility with existing systems, addressing the limitations of current touchless HMIs while reducing infection risks.
Implementation Method 1
a capacitive sensor for touchless sensing
Implementation Method 2
using sonic wave transmission (SWT) for touchless haptic feedback (THF)
Data Source
AI summary
A retrofit interface apparatus interfaces with a target device to provide the target device with touchless user input. The apparatus comprises: a touchless sensing system comprising one or more sensors responsive to touchless input made by a human user and for generating one or more corresponding sensor input signals; a controller connected to receive the one or more sensor input signals from the touchless sensing system and configured to generate, based on the one or more sensor input signals, a corresponding control signal; and the controller connectable to the target device to bypass a touch-based input of the target device and to provide the control signal as an input to an existing control system of the target device to thereby cause the control system of the target device to operate the target device based on the control signal.