Systems and methods for friction displays and additional haptic effects

• US 10,073,526 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2017
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Inventors: Cruz-Hernandez, Juan Manuel, Grant, Danny A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bee, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US15/601,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20170255268A1
• Time in Patent Office: 477 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/014 Force feedback applied to GUI
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/04 Texture mapping
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 6/00 Tactile signalling systems, e.g. personal calling systems

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products for providing composite haptic effects are disclosed. One disclosed method includes detecting a touch occurring in a touch area when an object contacts a touch surface and selecting a composite haptic effect to generate in response to the touch, the composite haptic effect including at least one surface-based haptic effect and at least one other effect. Based on the selected composite haptic effect, a first haptic signal can be sent to cause an actuator to vary a coefficient of friction of the touch surface and a second actuator can be caused to provide a second haptic output in addition to the variation in the coefficient of friction. The second haptic signal can be sent to a second actuator or the same actuator(s) used to vary the coefficient of friction can generate the second haptic output.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a sensor configured to detect a touch in a touch area when an object contacts a touch surface;

a processor in communication with the sensor and configured to;

determine a first haptic effect based in part on data received from the sensor by mapping a location of the touch to a mapping file comprising friction values at locations on the touch surface, the mapping file comprising data associated with multiple layers of a user interface, each layer associated with a state of the user interface, the first haptic effect configured to vary a coefficient of friction of the touch surface; and

transmit a first haptic signal associated with the first haptic effect; and

a first haptic output device in communication with the processor and configured to receive the first haptic signal and output the first haptic effect.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second haptic output device, and wherein the processor is further configured to determine a second haptic effect and transmit a second haptic signal associated with the second haptic effect to the second haptic output device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first haptic output device comprises a piezoelectric actuator, and wherein the second haptic output device comprises one or more of:

a second piezoelectric actuator, a shape memory alloy, an electroactive polymer, a composite piezoelectric actuator, an electromagnetic actuator, an eccentric rotational mass actuator, a linear resonant actuator, or a voice coil actuator.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first haptic effect is configured to vary the coefficient of friction on the touch surface to simulate a background texture, and the second haptic effect is configured to simulate a feature overlaying the background texture.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the mapping file comprises a plurality of values, including a first value used to generate the first haptic signal and a second value used to generate the second haptic signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a pressure of the touch based on data from the sensor, and wherein the first haptic effect is determined based at least in part on the pressure of the touch.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display, the display comprising a plurality of pixels and defining a display area, the display configured to output an image based at least in part on a display signal, and wherein the touch surface corresponds to the display or a material above the display.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the mapping file further comprises data associated with the plurality of pixels.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein varying the coefficient of friction of the touch surface comprises increasing the coefficient of friction of the touch surface.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a sensor signal from a sensor configured to detect a touch in a touch area when an object contacts a touch surface;

determining a first haptic effect based in part on the sensor signal by mapping a location of the touch to a mapping file comprising friction values at locations on the touch surface, the mapping file comprising data associated with multiple layers of a user interface, each layer associated with a state of the user interface, the first haptic effect configured to vary a coefficient of friction of the touch surface; and

transmitting a first haptic signal associated with the first haptic effect to a first haptic output device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining a second haptic effect and transmitting a second haptic signal associated with the second haptic effect to a second haptic output device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first haptic output device comprises a piezoelectric actuator, and wherein the second haptic output device comprises one or more of:

a second piezoelectric actuator, a shape memory alloy, an electroactive polymer, a composite piezoelectric actuator, an electromagnetic actuator, an eccentric rotational mass actuator, a linear resonant actuator, or a voice coil actuator.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first haptic effect is configured to vary the coefficient of friction on the touch surface to simulate a background texture, and the second haptic effect is configured to simulate a feature overlaying the background texture.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the mapping file comprises a plurality of values, including a first value used to generate the first haptic signal and a second value used to generate the second haptic signal.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining a pressure of the touch based on data from the sensor, and wherein the first haptic effect is determined based at least in part on the pressure of the touch.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein varying the coefficient of friction of the touch surface comprises increasing the coefficient of friction of the touch surface.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying program code executable by a processor, the program code, when executed, configured to cause the processor to:

receive a sensor signal from a sensor configured to detect a touch in a touch area when an object contacts a touch surface;

determine a first haptic effect based in part on the sensor signal by mapping a location of the touch to a mapping file comprising friction values at locations on the touch surface, the mapping file comprising data associated with multiple layers of a user interface, each layer associated with a state of the user interface, the first haptic effect configured to vary a coefficient of friction of the touch surface; and

transmit a first haptic signal associated with the first haptic effect to a first haptic output device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising program code, which when executed by processor is configured to cause the processor to:

determine a second haptic effect and transmitting a second haptic signal associated with the second haptic effect to a second haptic output device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the first haptic output device comprises a piezoelectric actuator, and wherein the second haptic output device comprises one or more of:

a second piezoelectric actuator, a shape memory alloy, an electroactive polymer, a composite piezoelectric actuator, an electromagnetic actuator, an eccentric rotational mass actuator, a linear resonant actuator, or a voice coil actuator.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein varying the coefficient of friction of the touch surface comprises increasing the coefficient of friction of the touch surface.