Touch-Sensitive Sheet With Air-Driven Tactile Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing touch-sensitive input devices for electronic apparatuses, such as digital cameras and mobile phones, lack effective representation of a sense of touch, particularly in providing concave and convex feelings, which hinders operability and user experience.
Innovation Solution
A touch-sensitive sheet member with a body of predetermined hardness and a sense-of-touch-representing unit, including apertures or bag portions, that supplies air to represent concave and convex sensations through a medium-supplying unit, allowing for improved tactile feedback during slide and press operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a touch panel with display unit is combined to provide touch input function, then the input capability is improved, but the sense of touch feedback is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating specific sense-of-touch-representing units with different physical characteristics (concave/convex shapes, varying hardness, different surface textures) at different locations on the touch panel. These localized tactile features provide differentiated feedback corresponding to different input areas, resolving the contradiction between maintaining a flat touch surface and providing meaningful tactile feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes curvature by incorporating concave and convex portions into the sense-of-touch-representing units. These curved and three-dimensional surface features create varying tactile sensations when touched, allowing the flat touch panel to provide rich tactile feedback without compromising its fundamental flat structure for touch input detection.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If vibration is applied to provide tactile feedback, then the sense of touch is improved, but the contact area for receiving vibration is small
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional vibration surface to a three-dimensional tactile structure by incorporating concave and convex portions that extend vertically from the touch panel surface. This dimensional change allows vibration to be transmitted through multiple levels and surfaces, effectively increasing the contact area and enhancing tactile feedback without requiring a larger panel area.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces uniform mechanical vibration with localized tactile structures that can be selectively activated. Instead of vibrating the entire panel surface, specific sense-of-touch-representing units with concave/convex features are activated, providing focused tactile feedback that appears to originate from a larger effective contact area while using efficient vibration mechanisms.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If piezoelectric actuators are used to transmit vibration, then tactile feedback is provided, but the effective contact area is small relative to actuator size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the vibration transmission function by dividing the touch panel into multiple independent sense-of-touch-representing units, each with its own piezoelectric actuator and tactile features. This segmentation allows each actuator to control a specific localized area with optimized contact features, improving the ratio of effective contact area to actuator size while providing distributed tactile feedback across the panel.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes flexible thin film structures for the sense-of-touch-representing units that can be deformed by piezoelectric actuators. These flexible films with concave and convex portions amplify the small displacements generated by piezoelectric actuators into larger tactile sensations, effectively increasing the contact area and tactile impact without requiring larger actuators.
4Object-generated harmful factors
If concave and convex shapes are created to represent sense of touch, then tactile feedback is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple functions into the sense-of-touch-representing units: the same structural elements that provide concave and convex shapes for tactile feedback also serve as the vibration transmission paths and the tactile contact surfaces. This consolidation reduces the number of separate manufacturing steps and components, making the production of complex tactile features more feasible despite their three-dimensional nature.
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 experience by providing programmable tactile feedback, improving operability, reducing miss-operations, and simplifying manufacturing processes while maintaining a flat surface appearance.
Implementation Method 1
A touch-sensitive sheet member with a body of predetermined hardness and a sense-of-touch-representing unit, including apertures or bag portions, that supplies air to represent concave and convex sensations through a medium-supplying unit
Data Source
AI summary
A touch-sensitive sheet member contains a body having predetermined hardness and a sheet shape and a sense-of-touch-representing unit that represents a sense of touch. The sense-of-touch-representing unit has a predetermined size and is arranged at positions of the body or at a predetermined position of the body. The touch-sensitive sheet member also contains a medium-supplying unit that supplies medium to the sense-of-touch-representing unit.