Searchable Texture Index for Tactile Search
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online trading platforms lack the ability to provide users with a tactile experience when searching for items based on texture attributes, limiting the sensory engagement and accuracy of texture-based searches.
Innovation Solution
A searchable texture index system that generates tactile-enabled content by using texture recognition devices to extract attributes from images and create entries in a texture index, allowing users to experience textures through tactile-enabled devices, such as vibratory feedback or dynamic tactile surfaces, and enhancing listings with texture data for a tactile experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional text-based search is used, then search simplicity is maintained, but texture search accuracy and user engagement are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a texture index as an intermediary data structure between image data and search queries. The texture index stores extracted texture features (edges, corners, gradients) in a structured format that enables efficient texture-based search, resolving the contradiction by adding a specialized intermediate layer that improves search accuracy without fundamentally redesigning the entire search system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional text-based search mechanisms with image processing and feature extraction techniques. By using algorithms to extract texture features from images and store them in the texture index, the system substitutes mechanical text searching with automated visual analysis, enabling accurate texture search while maintaining system manageability through algorithmic automation
2Ease of operation
If tactile feedback is added to enhance user experience, then user engagement is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the display device multi-functional by enabling it to provide both visual and tactile feedback. The same display hardware that shows images also generates tactile sensations through controlled surface deformation or vibration, allowing one device to serve multiple sensory functions without requiring separate dedicated tactile devices for each function
Solution Approach 2:
The patent draws an analogy between visual color changes and tactile surface changes. Just as display pixels can change colors to convey information, the display surface can change its physical properties (roughness, vibration, deformation) to convey tactile information, using the same control mechanisms to create different sensory experiences
Data Source
AI summary
Electronic content that has a tactile dimension when presented on a tactile-enabled computing device may be referred to as tactile-enabled content. A tactile-enabled device is a device that is capable of presenting tactile-enabled content in a manner that permits a user to experience tactile quality of electronic content. In one example embodiment, a system is provided for generating content that has a tactile dimension when presented on a tactile-enabled device.