1498 results about "Tactile sense" patented technology

Systems, methods, computer-readable media, and other means are described for utilizing touch-based input components that provide localized haptic feedback to a user. The touch-based input components can be used and / or integrated into any type of electronic device, including laptop computers, cellular telephones, and portable media devices. The touch-based input components can use, for example, a grid of piezoelectric actuators to provide vibrational feedback to a user, while the user scrolls around a click wheel, slides across a trackpad, or touches a multi-touch display screen.

Conductivity of a photoconductive layer 420 changes in accordance with a display pattern made of black and white, which is displayed on a display device 200 of a touch panel apparatus with tactile display function 10. With this change of the conductivity, viscosity of an electrorheological fluid layer 430 changes in accordance with this display pattern. This change of the viscosity is presented to an operator, as tactile information corresponding to the display pattern displayed as the visual information.

The invention relates to an electronic device and a method of managing a virtual keyboard of the electronic device. The device comprises a touch pad (106), a processing unit (600) and a feedback unit (612), which provides tactile feedback unit (612) for the user. The processing unit (600) is configured to determine a virtual keyboard (104) for the touch pad (106) and a tactile appearance of the keyboard (104), receive information generated by the pressing of a keyboard (104) key and identify the key that was pressed on the basis of the information. The processing unit (600) is further configured to collect information on the key presses and carry out an analysis of them, and re-determine the tactile appearance of the keyboard (104) on the basis of the collected information and the analysis carried out so as to make the keyboard more ergonomic for the user, which makes it easier to use the keyboard (104) and / or the pressing of a wrong key less likely.

A learning environment and method which is a first milestone to an expert machine that implements the master-slave robotic concept. The present invention is of a learning environment and method for teaching the master expert machine by a skilled worker that transfers his professional knowledge to the master expert machine in the form of elementary motions and subdivided tasks. The present invention further provides a stand alone learning environment, where a human wearing one or two innovative gloves equipped with 3D feeling sensors transfers a task performing knowledge to a robot in a different learning process than the Master-Slave learning concept. The 3D force\torque, displacement, velocity\acceleration and joint forces are recorded during the knowledge transfer in the learning environment by a computerized processing unit that prepares the acquired data for mathematical transformations for transmitting commands to the motors of a robot. The objective of the new robotic learning method is a learning process that will pave the way to a robot with a “human-like” tactile sensitivity, to be applied to material handling, or man / machine interaction.

Provided is an active driving type visual and tactile display device, in which a flat panel display device for visually displaying an image and a haptic part for generating a tactile sense using an electrostatic force are integrated to generate textures according to an electrostatic force based on an image signal. As a result, visual and tactile senses may be simultaneously recognized. Since the display device enables a user to simultaneously see an image through a visual sense and perceive various textures through a tactile sense, the performance of a device is significantly improved. Therefore, various textures according to an image signal can be precisely realized by the generation of an electrostatic force per unit cell.

An image processing device according to an embodiment of the invention has: a tactile sense generating unit for generating a stimulus which can be perceived by the user who is touching through a portion touched with an input unit, the input unit being provided in correspondence to a display unit for displaying a drawing object; and a control unit for controlling the tactile sense generating unit so as to generate the stimulus when a touch input is performed to a position corresponding to the drawing object of the input unit and an edit process is executed to the drawing object.

A sock used in pilates includes a medial support about an arch portion of the sock, a side support member extending longitudinally along a lateral edge, a metacarpal support member, a reinforcement member extending from a heel portion to the metacarpal support member, and a plurality of raised bumps strategically located on a lower surface to provide tactile response to weight shift and pressure due to posture that can be used to correct or adjust posture during pilates exercises.

A method for influencing the load on a driver while driving a motor vehicle, in which a workload is determined from physiological driver data detected by sensors, and to an apparatus for carrying out the method. The load or the workload on the driver is kept in an optimum workload range and brought back to this optimum range if there is any discrepancy, thus ensuring an optimum driver performance level and attention level. For this purpose, vehicle systems are driven as a function of the detected workload value in such a way that the driver is influenced via his visual, auditory or tactile sense channels in such a way that his workload value returns to a value in the optimum workload range.

The invention discloses a method for realizing a car driving simulator facing to training, which depends on computer graphics, virtual reality and other technologies and generates virtual vision, sound effects and motion simulation in the car driving process through a computer in order that a driving learner immerses into a virtual driving environment; according to the feelings of vision, hearing and touch provided by the virtual driving environment, the learner can conceive driving motions and manipulate a catanator in a simulated cockpit. The invention is suitable for the increasing need of driving training, saves fields, cars, gasoline, manpower and other resources and has the functions of various test items and error prompt in order that a user masters the basic skills under a safer environment; the practices in urban scenes, mountainous roads and freeways can reach the effect of familiarizing traffic regulations and improving driving skills; the simulation in various weather can train the driving skills of users under the severe situation and the strain capacity of various emergent situations, thereby having important application value in commercial and scientific research fields.

A mobile communication device may include logic configured to receive input on a touch sensitive surface of a device and activate an ultrasonic element to vibrate in response to the received input, where the vibration provides tactile feedback to a user indicating that the device has received the input.

A user selects a recipe from a list of recipes. Preparation steps corresponding to the selected recipe are retrieved from a data store, such as a database. Each of the retrieved preparation steps is displayed sequentially to the user on a horizontal surface display that is included in an interactive cooking preparation device. During at least one preparation step, a selected kitchen appliance is identified, such as a configurable burner surface. The identified preparation step also includes one or more appliance parameters that correspond to the selected kitchen appliance. The selected kitchen appliance is controlled by sending one or more signals from the interactive cooking preparation device to the selected kitchen appliance. At least one of the signals sent to the appliance includes one of the appliance parameters.

Conductivity of a photoconductive layer changes in accordance with a display pattern made of black and white, which is displayed on a display device of a touch panel apparatus with tactile display function. With this change of the conductivity, viscosity of an electrorheological fluid layer changes in accordance with this display pattern. This change of the viscosity is presented to an operator, as tactile information corresponding to the display pattern displayed as the visual information.

The invention has an active touch-sensitive transparent layer over a display screen (LCD) in which an electrically responsive material, such as silicon oil or the above-described material is trapped in a very thin layer with a diode at the top part of the layer and an anode at the bottom. The electrically responsive material changes form by expanding when a current passes through the material from the anode part of the layer to the diode. The expanded material stretches part the top layer to create raised portions of the display screen. The raised portions can be used in the following capacities: to assist a vision impaired viewer, enhance night viewing, allowing for reduced attention or resources to touch-screen manipulation, or change the optical properties of the display by creating a three-dimensional optical property in the surface of the flexible material covering the expanding layer.

Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying users of touch screens according to a touch / gesture profile. The profile includes stored electrical characteristics of contact with the touch screen. The profile is correlated with applications opened and / or accessed, along with any associated metadata, as well as media exposure data derived from audio received at the device. The correlated information may be used to confirm identification of one or more individuals using a device for audience measurement purposes.

A personal alerting device and method for detecting an approaching sound source includes a sound detector for detecting environmental sounds and for providing an electrical signal to a sound analyzer. The sound signal is analyzed to determine a baseline sound pattern comprising a plurality of distinct sounds corresponding to sounds emitted from a reference sound source. The distinct sounds in the baseline sound pattern may have substantially the same amplitude and time interval. The sound signal is monitored and compared against the baseline sound pattern to determine whether a target sound pattern is present in the sound signal, the target sound pattern corresponding to sounds emitted by the approaching sound source. When it is determined that the target sound is present in the sound signal, one or more of an audible, visual and tactile alert may be emitted to provide warning of the approaching sound source.

An input apparatus and method for tactile sensing are disclosed. The input apparatus includes a sensor array for outputting input data in an array format according to a touch input, and a controller for obtaining first input data for a first input from the sensor array if the first input above a predetermined pressure is imposed on the sensor array, for obtaining second input data for a second input from the sensor array if the second input above a predetermined pressure is imposed on the sensor array, for generating third input data indicating an input characteristic by comparing the first input data and the second input data, and for operating according to a program based on the third input data.

A training device for training the course of movement of a person by the manipulation of an object to be moved in a predetermined way has a data processing unit with which first sensors placed on the person are connected to transmit data of the movement to the data processing unit. Second sensors are placed on the object and connected to the data processing unit in order to transmit data of the movement of the object to the data processing unit. Mechanical actuating elements are placed on the object and connected to the data processing unit. They are triggered by the data processing unit to simulate contact with a virtual object as a tactile acknowledgement to the person. An indicator placed on the person and a memory for reference data are connected to the data processing unit, and the data processing unit calculates from the reference data the ideal course of movement of the body and the object and represents the ideal course of movement on the indicator.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for the direct and safe teaching of a robot. The apparatus consists of a plurality of tactile sensors and electronic circuitry encapsulated in a compact enclosure, and a handle protruding from the enclosure. The handle provides an easy means for an operator to apply an external force and to act on the sensors that generate electronic signals to the robot controller. The signals, proportional to the applied force, carry information that sets boundaries for safe operations, thus protecting the operator from any harm and the robot from damage.While in the teaching mode the operator guides the robot with the apparatus to the predetermined work positions that are recorded in the controller memory. The work position recording can be handled by either activating a pushbutton or by a voice command. The recorded positions are played back when the robot operates in the work mode.

A digital audio mixing system for live performance venues includes a software user interface and system host PC with an internal digital signal processor to perform digital mixing functions. The system includes a console having an array of multiple touch screen displays with corresponding fader board (tactile) control surfaces operatively connected to the host PC, and an audio patch bay unit. One or more stage boxes are linked to each other and to the system host PC by wired or wireless connections. The user interface includes multiple functional views and configuration presets, displayed in setup and real time modes, to allow the user to operate the system in a user friendly and simplified environment.

An interactive cooking device is provided. A user selects a recipe from a list of available recipes. Preparation steps corresponding to the selected recipe are retrieved from a data store along with a set of ingredients. The retrieved preparation steps are sequentially displaying to the user on a display that is included in the interactive cooking preparation device. The user's preparation actions are monitored, using one or more sensors. Gestures that correspond to the current preparation step are retrieved from the data store along with thresholds that correspond to each of the gestures. The user's actions are compared to the retrieved gestures using the retrieved thresholds. If the user's actions vary from the gestures by more than the thresholds, an alert is generated. The user is then provided with a suggested course of correction.

A simulator trains for hemorrhage control using hemostatic agents, tourniquets, and / or other hemorrhage control techniques in a simulator that works with a wide variety of existing human surrogates. The simulator merges a live video feed of the surrogate and trainee's hands (or objects interacting with the surrogate) with a computer-generated visual representation of the wound and hemorrhaging blood to provide an immersive display experience to the trainee without requiring different surrogates for different simulated wounds. The trainee may wear pulse-generating glove(s) that simulate the patient's pulse where the trainee's finger tip contacts the surrogate. A sensorized substrate (e.g., load sensors, haptic output generators) may automatically be moved between the trainee and the surrogate to sense interaction with the surrogate and provide haptic feedback. The substrate may replace the surrogate altogether. The simulator may alternatively simulate events and objects other than wounds and humans.

An enclosure for tablet devices with features to provide secure mounting options is described. In accordance with at least one embodiment, the enclosure provides options to mount a tablet device in either a desktop stand or onto a variety of other supports, including VESA compliant mounts and electrical junction boxes. Security options include the ability to secure the tablet device inside the enclosure to provide a deterrent to theft or vandalism. Additional levels of security may be provided that limit access to the tablet device's control features (i.e., control buttons, cameras, sensors). In accordance with at least one embodiment, access to the tablet device's display, button(s), camera(s), microphone(s), speaker(s), connector(s), and / or tactile feedback of button(s) or other devices can be selectively maintained or prevented while the tablet device is enclosed in the tablet enclosure.

An electro-tactile display comprises at least one current source, arrayed electrodes, and a switching circuit for connecting each electrode to the current source or to ground. The electro-tactile display is characterized by selecting one or a plurality of electrodes from the arrayed electrodes and connecting the selected electrodes to the current source to provide current source electrodes, alternately connecting neighboring electrodes in the vicinity of said current source electrodes to the current source and to ground, connecting a plurality of remaining electrodes other than the neighboring electrodes to ground to provide ground electrodes, and providing electrical stimulation from the current source electrodes wherein the current source electrodes are spaced apart from the ground electrodes via the neighboring electrodes. Tactile sensations are presented by switching over the current source electrodes at a predetermined time interval.

A method provides tactile feedback emulating a click like feedback provided by one or more low cost, thin piezoelectric devices (142) to an input device (110) of an electronic device (100), the piezoelectric devices (142) being driven by two or more low voltage pulses (804, 806) within the temporal acuity of human touch.

A tactile sensing transducer provides as its output a skin deformation signal for storage or transmission to a tactile stimulation display transducer. A skin surface imaging means operating optically, acoustically or otherwise is positioned for viewing and providing an output image signal corresponding to said deformed skin surface. An electronic processing means connected to said imaging means provides an output skin deformation signal corresponding to the deformation of said skin. The display transducer may incorporate a plurality of individually actuatable, bendable cantilevered arms mounted in line on a base support, each of the arms having tip ends which are displaceable, upon actuation, to provide a tactile display.

A sock used in pilates includes a medial support about an arch portion of the sock, a side support member extending longitudinally along a lateral edge, a metacarpal support member, a reinforcement member extending from a heel portion to the metacarpal support member, and a plurality of raised bumps strategically located on a lower surface to provide tactile response to weight shift and pressure due to posture that can be used to correct or adjust posture during pilates exercises.

A system and method for manipulating graphic objects on a tactile user interface are provided. The graphic objects can be photographic images which are retrieved in response to a query and are clustered, based on values of first and second user-selected features assigned to the graphic objects. A navigation map is displayed on the user interface. The navigation map represents the clusters of graphic objects in first and second dimensions, corresponding to the first and second features. A user can manipulate a target window displayed on the navigation map using the tactile user interface. The target window encompasses a subset of the clustered graphic objects. A synchronized display of graphic objects in the subset of graphic objects on the user interface corresponds to the subset of clustered graphic objects within the displayed target window.