Tactile Structures on Touch Sensitive Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch sensitive displays in handheld electronic devices lack tactile feedback, making it difficult for users to accurately actuate inputs, as they require more attention and do not provide the same level of feedback as mechanical keyboards.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating translucent, elongated tactile structures on top of the touch sensitive display that protrude from the surface, providing haptic feedback to users during actuation, and are oriented parallel to the columns of visual elements to facilitate input in close-packed arrangements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a touch sensitive display is used to provide visual output and input capability, then the device achieves compact integration and wireless communication functionality, but tactile feedback is significantly reduced compared to mechanical keyboards
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the visual display function and tactile feedback function into a single integrated touch-sensitive display structure. The tactile structures are incorporated directly into the display overlay, merging what were traditionally separate components (display and keyboard) into one unified interface that provides both visual output and haptic feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces tactile structures as an intermediary element between the user's finger and the touch-sensitive display surface. These structures protrude from the overlay and provide mechanical contact points that simulate keyboard feel, acting as a mediator that translates touch input into both visual and tactile feedback.
2Measurement precision
If tactile structures are added to the touch sensitive display to provide haptic feedback, then user input accuracy is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a flexible or rigid overlay with integrated tactile structures that can be manufactured as a thin film or shell layer. This overlay incorporates the tactile elements directly into its structure, allowing for compact design while maintaining the ability to provide haptic feedback without adding significant thickness or complexity to the overall device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the tactile dimension to the traditionally two-dimensional touch display by incorporating protruding structures that extend in the third dimension (perpendicular to the display surface). This dimensional addition provides haptic feedback while maintaining the flat profile of the device when not in use.
3Ease of operation
If tactile structures protrude from the touch sensitive display surface, then tactile reinforcement is provided to users, but visual distortion may occur and manufacturing becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the tactile structures with the display overlay into a single integrated component. By combining these elements that were previously separate (tactile indicators and display surface), the invention eliminates alignment issues between different manufacturing processes and simplifies production while maintaining both visual and tactile functionality.
Data Source
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AI summary
An improved handheld electronic device has a touch sensitive display which comprises a number of elongated tactile structures that are haptically detectable by a user. Various routines executable on the handheld electronic device can cause visual elements to be output in various predetermined arrangements with respect to the arrangement of the tactile structures in order to facilitate input.