Steering Wheel Touch Sensor Hybrid Capacitive Resistive Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current touch sensors on steering wheels fail to accurately measure touch intensity and location, leading to malfunctions when touched by mistake or with gloves, and lack precise operation recognition due to neglecting touch pressure and visual feedback limitations.
Innovation Solution
A touch control system for steering wheels that incorporates a touch sensor to measure surface location and intensity, a control unit to analyze gestures and generate corresponding commands, and a feedback circuit for providing visual, auditory, and tactile feedback, allowing for gesture-based vehicle control with customizable interfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a capacitive or inductive touch sensor is used, then touch sensitivity and durability are improved, but the ability to measure touch intensity is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple touch sensors (both capacitive and resistive film types) in a hybrid configuration on the steering wheel. The capacitive sensors provide touch detection and durability, while the resistive film sensors measure touch intensity through pressure detection. This merging of different sensor technologies resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to simultaneously achieve high reliability and precise intensity measurement.
Solution Approach 2:
The touch sensor system uses a composite structure combining capacitive sensor materials and resistive film materials. This composite approach allows the system to leverage the advantages of both material types: the capacitive portion provides sensitivity and durability, while the resistive film portion enables pressure-based intensity measurement, thus resolving the measurement limitation of pure capacitive sensors.
2Device complexity
If only touch location is measured without touch intensity, then device complexity is reduced, but operation recognition accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges location detection (from capacitive sensors) and intensity detection (from resistive film sensors) into a unified touch recognition system. This combination provides both spatial information and pressure information, significantly improving operation recognition accuracy without adding excessive complexity, as both sensor types are integrated into a single control system.
3Device complexity
If visual feedback is not provided during touch operation, then device complexity is reduced, but user interaction quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism that provides visual guidance to users during touch operations. The system displays visual indicators showing the current touch location and operation status on the steering wheel interface, allowing users to see what they are interacting with. This feedback improves user interaction quality by making the system more intuitive and reducing errors, while the complexity added is minimal as it uses existing display 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
The system effectively prevents accidental inputs, enables user-customized gesture mapping, and provides clear feedback, ensuring precise vehicle control even with limited gestures, enhancing user interaction and functionality.
Implementation Method 1
there has been a tendency to utilize an impedance type touch sensor, such as a capacitive touch sensor
Implementation Method 2
there has been a tendency to utilize an impedance type touch sensor, such as a capacitive touch sensor and an inductive touch sensor
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for operating a touch control based steering wheel includes a touch sensor for generating sensor-related information by measuring a surface location and intensity of a steering wheel to sense a gesture, a control unit for performing a corresponding function by analyzing the sensor-related information to generate touch input pattern information, and selecting a predetermined control command depending upon the touch input pattern information, and a feedback circuit for providing a feedback depending upon the control command.