Touch Panel Vibration Control for Distinct Tactile Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of electronic devices with touch panels cannot discern correct input operations through tactile sensation due to similar tactile feedback between GUI buttons and non-button areas, leading to user stress.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device with a touch panel that incorporates vibrating sections and a vibration control system, which generates distinct vibration modes based on touch position, ensuring varying tactile sensations across different touch points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single vibration mode is used for all touch positions, then the device structure is simple, but the tactile sensation varies significantly between different touch positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by switching between different vibration modes (first and second vibration modes) depending on the touch position detected. The vibration control section dynamically selects which vibration mode to activate, making the system adaptive rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by allowing the tactile feedback characteristics to change based on operational conditions (touch position), thereby maintaining consistent perceptible vibration across different GUI button locations while using a relatively simple overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the vibration parameters (specifically the vibration mode) based on the touch position. When a touch is detected, the system determines whether to vibrate in the first vibration mode or the second vibration mode according to the detected position. This parameter change approach allows the tactile sensation to be optimized for each touch position, reducing the variation in tactile feedback while maintaining structural simplicity through controlled parameter variation rather than complex hardware changes.
2Ease of operation
If vibration is applied to all touch positions, then tactile feedback is provided everywhere, but it becomes impossible to distinguish GUI buttons from non-button areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing different vibration modes at different touch positions. The first vibration mode and second vibration mode have different characteristics (different numbers of vibration nodes), creating locally distinct tactile sensations. This allows the system to provide tactile feedback at all GUI button positions while maintaining the ability to distinguish between buttons and non-button areas, as well as between different buttons, through the unique vibration characteristics associated with each position.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback by detecting the touch position and then selecting the appropriate vibration mode based on that position. The vibration control section receives information about where the user touched and responds with the corresponding vibration mode, creating a closed-loop feedback system. This ensures that tactile feedback is provided where needed (at GUI buttons) while maintaining the ability to distinguish button positions from non-button areas through position-dependent vibration characteristics.
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 device reduces tactile sensation variation between touch positions, allowing users to accurately determine correct input operations through felt vibrations, enhancing user experience.
Implementation Method 1
a vibrating section for vibrating a panel member in a first vibration mode and a second vibration mode
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device 100 includes a touch panel 102 for accepting a touch operation by a user to detect a touch position, a vibrating section 203 for vibrating the touch panel 102 in a first vibration mode and a second vibration mode, and a vibration control section 301 for controlling the vibration of the vibrating section 203. The number of vibration nodes occurring on the touch panel 102 in the first vibration mode is different from the number of vibration nodes occurring on the touch panel 102 in the second vibration mode. The vibration control section 301 vibrates the touch panel 102 in at least one of the first vibration mode and the second vibration mode depending on the touch position of the user.