Side-Face Keyboard Touch Pad Placement Using Fitts's Law
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing keyboard apparatuses lack optimal placement of touch pads and mouse pointers, leading to suboptimal user convenience and operability.
Innovation Solution
The keyboard apparatus is designed with touch pads on at least one side face and a mouse pointer on the top face, adhering to specific distance and width ratios to enhance user comfort and operability, guided by Fitts' law principles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the touch pad is placed on the front side face of the enclosure, then the user can easily access it with the thumb, but the distance from the home position keys may become too short causing operational difficulty
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies Fitts's law by establishing a specific mathematical relationship between the distance D from home position keys to the touch pad and the touch pad width W (D≥k×W where k is 0.2-0.5). This parameter optimization ensures that the touch pad is accessible to the thumb while maintaining an acceptable index of difficulty for accurate pointing operations.
2Ease of operation
If the touch pad width is increased to improve accessibility, then more users can comfortably operate it, but the distance from home position keys must be increased proportionally
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes an optimized proportionality relationship between touch pad width W and distance D from home position keys, defined by D≥k×W where k ranges from 0.2 to 0.5. This allows designers to scale the touch pad size according to user comfort requirements while automatically determining the appropriate distance from keys to maintain operational efficiency.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the touch pad is placed on the rear side face of the enclosure, then it is less likely to be accidentally touched, but the distance from home position keys becomes too long reducing accessibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies that the touch pad should be positioned on the front side face of the enclosure (rather than rear or other faces) to optimize the balance between accessibility and accidental touch prevention. This location provides optimal ergonomics for thumb operation while maintaining the prescribed distance relationship D≥k×W from home position keys.
Data Source
AI summary
A keyboard apparatus includes an enclosure, a plurality of keys located on a top face of the enclosure, and a touch pad provided on at least one side face of the enclosure. A shortest distance D between a key assigned to a home position out of the plurality of keys and an upper end of a side face on which the touch pad is provided, and a width W of the touch pad satisfy an equation below2<log2 (1+D/W)<6.