Tactile Feedback Control for Scroll Speed Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional user interfaces struggle to allow users to accurately determine the scrolling speed, especially at high speeds, due to decreased vibration feedback, making it difficult to stop scrolling at the desired position.
Innovation Solution
A tactile stimulus control apparatus that adjusts the intensity of tactile feedback based on scrolling speed, using a combination of a CPU, tactile stimulus generating units, and a scrolling speed control unit to provide haptic intensity matching the scrolling speed, allowing users to recognize the speed through touch feedback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the scrolling speed increases, then the scrolling efficiency is improved, but the user's ability to visually recognize the scrolling speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the vibration intensity provided to the user dynamically responds to the scrolling speed. As the scrolling speed increases, the vibration intensity increases accordingly, providing real-time tactile feedback that enables the user to recognize and control the scrolling speed even at high values.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces visual recognition with tactile sensing by substituting the visual feedback channel with a mechanical vibration channel. This allows the user to perceive scrolling speed through touch rather than sight, enabling accurate speed recognition at high scrolling rates where visual feedback becomes insufficient.
2Productivity
If the scrolling speed increases, then the scrolling efficiency is improved, but the user's ability to determine the stop position deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The vibration feedback provides continuous information about the current scrolling speed, enabling the user to make informed decisions about when to stop scrolling. The user can modulate the scrolling speed by controlling the vibration intensity, thereby precisely determining the stop position even during high-speed scrolling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables the user to self-regulate the scrolling process by providing tactile feedback that allows the user to independently control and monitor the scrolling speed without requiring visual attention, thereby improving both efficiency and positioning accuracy.
3Ease of operation
If the vibration intensity decreases with scrolling speed, then the tactile feedback matches the scrolling motion, but the user cannot determine the scrolling speed at high speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional approach by making vibration intensity increase with scrolling speed rather than decrease. This counterintuitive design provides stronger tactile signals at higher speeds, enabling the user to recognize and control fast scrolling through enhanced rather than diminished vibration feedback.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide the user with the relationship between the scrolling speed in scroll-displaying and an operation performed on an input surface, a tactile stimulus control apparatus includes an intensity determination unit and a tactile stimulus control unit. In a case where an operation performed by a manipulator on the input surface provided corresponding to a display unit is detected while an image is scroll-displayed by the display unit, the intensity determination unit determines the intensity of a tactile stimulus to be provided to the manipulator based on the scrolling speed at the timing of detection of the operation. The tactile stimulus control unit controls a tactile stimulus generating unit, which is configured to generate the tactile stimulus to be provided to the manipulator, to generate the tactile stimulus with the intensity determined by the intensity determination unit.