Touch-Sensitive Input Haptics Adapted to User Grip Profiles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing input devices, such as styluses, struggle to provide consistent haptic outputs due to variations in user grip and finger positions, leading to noticeable differences in perceived haptic feedback.
Innovation Solution
A touch-sensitive input device with a sensor subsystem to detect contact points between a user's hand and the device body, determining a touch profile based on this data, and adjusting haptic feedback mechanisms to provide consistent or varied outputs based on grip and activity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a haptic feedback mechanism is positioned locally within the body of the input device, then the device structure is simplified, but the haptic output becomes inconsistent across different user grip positions
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts haptic feedback parameters based on real-time detection of user hand position and grip characteristics. The processor modifies vibration intensity, frequency, or pattern according to the detected touch profile, ensuring consistent perceptual haptic output regardless of where the user grips the device body.
Solution Approach 2:
A sensor subsystem continuously monitors contact points between the user's hand and the device body, providing feedback data to the processor. This feedback loop enables the system to detect grip variations and compensate for them by adjusting haptic feedback delivery, thereby maintaining output consistency across different user positions.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the haptic feedback mechanism applies vibration to a localized area of the body, then the energy consumption is reduced, but the perceived haptic output varies noticeably with changes in user grip
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes haptic feedback parameters such as vibration intensity, frequency, or duration based on detected user grip characteristics. When the sensor subsystem detects that the user's hand position has changed, the processor adjusts these parameters to compensate for the positional variation, maintaining consistent perceptual haptic output while keeping the mechanism localized and energy-efficient.
3Device complexity
If the device provides fixed haptic output regardless of user grip, then the control system is simple, but the haptic feedback does not adapt to different user activities or grips
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor subsystem proactively detects user hand position and grip characteristics before haptic feedback is delivered. By预先 identifying the user's touch profile and grip characteristics, the system can pre-adjust haptic parameters to ensure optimal and consistent feedback for the detected grip type, enabling adaptive behavior without complex real-time control adjustments.
Data Source
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AI summary
Examples are disclosed that relate to applying haptic output to a touch-sensitive input device. One example provides a touch-sensitive input device comprising a body, a haptic feedback mechanism within the body, a sensor subsystem, a logic processor, and a memory. The memory stores instructions executable by the processor to receive from the sensor subsystem sensor data indicating locations along the body of a plurality of contact points between a user hand and the body, based at least in part on the sensor data, determine a touch profile of the user hand applied to the body, based at least in part on the touch profile of the user hand, determine a selected haptic output to be applied to the body, and cause a drive signal to be transmitted to the haptic feedback mechanism to apply the selected haptic output to the body.