Rotating Input Axis for Touch-Sensitive Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch-sensitive input devices, such as touchpads and touchscreens, face challenges in accurately translating user inputs when the user is not directly facing the fixed input axis, leading to decreased convenience.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where the input axis of the touch-sensitive input device can be rotated based on re-orientation inputs or sensor detections, such as tapping gestures or light-sensitive sensor triggers, to align the axis with the user's position, allowing for correct translation of movements to a graphical user interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the input axis is fixed in orientation, then the device structure is simple, but the input translation accuracy decreases when the user is not directly facing the device
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic input axis that can rotate to different orientations based on user position. The input axis is no longer fixed but can be reoriented through 360 degrees to align with the user, thereby maintaining accurate input translation regardless of user orientation. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to adapt its orientation to match the user's position.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the input axis dynamically. By adjusting the orientation angle of the input axis based on detected user position, the system maintains accurate input translation. The orientation parameter is modified in real-time to match the user's relative position, resolving the contradiction between fixed structure and accurate translation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the input axis is fixed, then the device is easier to operate for directly facing users, but usability decreases for users at different orientations
Solution Approach 1:
The input axis dynamically reorients itself based on the user's position, allowing the device to adapt to users at any orientation around the device. This dynamic capability enables the system to maintain ease of operation and accurate input translation for users regardless of their relative position to the device.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotating input axis provides universal usability for users at all orientations (360 degrees). The single input device serves multiple orientation functions, allowing any user positioned around the device to interact with it accurately. This multi-functional capability resolves the contradiction by making the device adaptable to all user orientations while maintaining ease of operation.
3Ease of operation
If the device remains stationary, then the structure is simpler, but the convenience decreases when users need to interact from different positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces rotational movement to the input device, allowing it to dynamically adjust its orientation toward the user. This dynamic reorientation capability significantly improves user convenience by enabling accurate input translation regardless of user position, while the rotation mechanism adds only moderate structural complexity compared to a fully movable device.
Solution Approach 2:
The device is segmented into a rotatable input axis component and a stationary base. This segmentation allows the input axis to rotate independently to track user position, providing enhanced convenience without requiring the entire device to move. The segmented structure balances complexity by isolating the movement function to a specific component.
Data Source
AI summary
Example implementations relate to touch-sensitive input devices. As an example, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises instructions that when executed cause a controller of an electronic device to receive, via a touch-sensitive input device of the electronic device, a touch input. The instructions also cause the controller to determine whether the touch input corresponds to a re-orientation input. The instructions further cause the controller to, in response to a determination that the touch input corresponds to the re-orientation input, rotate an input axis associated with the touch sensitive input device from a first orientation to a second orientation based on the re-orientation input.