Transparent Touch Screen Overlay with Raised Tactile Features
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch screen interfaces in gaming machines lack palpable reference points, requiring players to visually locate touch areas, which distracts them from the main game display and reduces the gaming experience, especially for visually impaired players.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a transparent or nearly transparent layer with active elements that can vertically displace the touch screen surface to create palpable buttons, outlines, or braille characters, allowing players to interact through touch while maintaining focus on the main display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a flat touch screen interface is used to replace physical buttons, then the machine becomes more configurable electronically and the button panel becomes less obstructive to the main display, but the player loses palpable reference points and must visually locate touch areas, which distracts from the main game display
Solution Approach 1:
A transparent or translucent overlay layer is introduced as an intermediary between the flat touch screen and the player's finger. This overlay contains raised tactile features (buttons, outlines, braille) that provide palpable reference points while allowing the touch screen to remain flat and configurable. The overlay mediates between the need for electronic configurability and the need for tactile feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution adds a third dimension (vertical height) to the otherwise two-dimensional flat touch screen surface. By creating raised features on the overlay layer, the invention provides tactile depth and palpable reference points without compromising the flatness of the underlying touch screen interface.
2Measurement precision
If visual location of touch areas is required, then the player can accurately locate buttons, but the player must take their focus off the main gaming display
Solution Approach 1:
The transparent overlay with raised tactile features serves as a mediator that enables accurate button location through touch alone. Players can locate and identify button positions, shapes, and functions through tactile sensation without needing to visually inspect the control panel, thus maintaining focus on the main game display.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the visual-mechanical interaction (looking at buttons and pressing them) with a tactile-mechanical interaction (feeling and pressing raised features). This substitution allows players to interact with the interface through touch alone, eliminating the need to shift visual focus between the game display and control panel.
3Ease of operation
If traditional physical buttons with spring and plunger mechanisms are used, then players have raised physical buttons for tactile reference, but the button panel is more complex and obstructs the main display
Solution Approach 1:
The complex spring and plunger mechanisms are extracted and removed from the system. Only the essential tactile function is retained through the raised features on the transparent overlay, while the actuation function is handled by the underlying touch screen technology.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical spring-plunger button mechanism is replaced with an electronic touch screen system. The tactile feedback function is preserved through the raised overlay features, while the actuation mechanism is simplified to electronic sensing without mechanical moving parts.
4Device complexity
If a flat touch screen surface is used, then the interface is simpler and more configurable, but visually impaired players cannot locate or identify control areas through touch
Solution Approach 1:
The overlay layer is segmented into distinct tactile regions corresponding to different functional areas (buttons, outlines, braille characters). Each segment provides specific tactile information that helps visually impaired players locate and identify control areas through touch.
Solution Approach 2:
The overlay provides different local tactile qualities in different areas: raised buttons for activation, outlines for boundary definition, and braille characters for labeling. These localized tactile variations enable visually impaired players to distinguish between different control areas and functions.
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
Enhances player interaction by providing tactile feedback, improving usability and focus on the game, and accommodating visually impaired players through raised icons and haptic feedback, thus enhancing the overall gaming experience.
Implementation Method 1
a series of active elements/actuators/chambers that enable a vertical displacement of the touch screen top surface
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a gaming machine touch screen system incorporating a flat transparent or nearly transparent layer that contains a series of active elements/actuators/chambers that enable a vertical displacement of the touch screen top surface. These active elements displace the top surface of the touch screen upon command of the gaming machine to provide features perceptible to the player's touch.