Touch Screen Virtual Button Physical Presence via Dynamic Column Raising
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Solution Overview
Problem
Touch screens lack tactile feedback, requiring users to redirect their attention from the main task to visually locate controls, as they cannot utilize their sense of touch, leading to increased visual attention and decreased usability in tasks like driving or reading.
Innovation Solution
A touch screen apparatus with a grid of tubular channels and solid columns that can raise to create a physical presence of virtual buttons, providing a raised surface that can be detected by the user's fingers, mimicking the sensation of physical controls through a transparent plastic matrix controlled by software.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a touch screen is used to provide virtual controls, then the device can act as both display and control without physical buttons, but the surface becomes perfectly flat with no tactile feedback
Solution Approach 1:
The touch screen surface dynamically changes from flat to raised state based on user interaction. The elastomeric layer can be deformed to create raised regions that provide tactile feedback when buttons are pressed, then returns to flat state for the next interaction. This dynamic transformation allows the same surface to serve both as a flat display and as a tactile control interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameter of the screen surface from flat to raised by deforming the elastomeric layer. This parameter change creates tactile feedback while maintaining the visual display function. The elastomeric material's ability to change shape under pressure enables the transition between these two states.
2Device complexity
If the touch screen surface remains perfectly flat, then the device structure is simple, but the user cannot locate controls using tactile sense and must redirect visual attention
Solution Approach 1:
The elastomeric layer dynamically deforms to create raised tactile indicators only when needed for control interaction. The raised regions appear temporarily during button pressing and then return to the flat state, providing tactile feedback exactly when the user needs to locate and operate controls, thereby reducing visual attention time.
3Ease of manufacture
If virtual buttons are created on a flat touch screen, then physical buttons are eliminated, but the buttons have no actual depth or three-dimensional presence
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the shape parameter of the touch screen surface by deforming the elastomeric layer to create raised regions. This transformation gives virtual buttons actual three-dimensional presence and depth when needed, while maintaining the simplicity of virtual button creation on the display layer. The raised regions provide tactile depth that mimics physical buttons.
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 user interaction by allowing tactile feedback, making it easier to locate and identify controls, improving usability by allowing users to focus on their main task without visual redirection.
Implementation Method 1
an elastomeric layer that can be deformed to create raised tactile indicators
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus providing physical presence of a virtual button on a touch screen of an electronic device. The apparatus comprises two layers. The bottom layer is a set of channels that form a matrix along x and y axes. The top layer consists of a matrix of small transparent columns. When the user interface displays an image, such as a pushbutton, the corresponding x and y coordinates that are mapped to the location of the pushbutton on the screen are inflated. The change in volume forces a subset of columns upward in the direction orthogonal to the plane of the screen. When at least one transparent column is raised, the image of the virtual button displayed on the screen takes on a physical presence when the surface of a display screen becomes raised in order to produce a sensation of touch as a finger moves across the surface.