Apparatus with Surface Information Displaying and Interaction Capability

• US 20080147239A1
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Hung, Ta-Chih, Lee, Yaw-Nan, Tseng, Kuo-Shih, Yeh, Fu-Kuang, Chiang, Chin-Chong, Chen, Chiu-Wang
• Application Number:
  US11/670,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20080147239A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/264
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/084 Tactile sensors in general G01L5/16, G01L5/22

Abstract

The present invention provides an apparatus with surface information displaying, wherein a skin unit comprising a flexible display is covered on the surface of a moving object of the apparatus such that the surface of the apparatus is capable of displaying the information such us color, pattern or text immediately by software control. Meanwhile, the flexible display further has a layer of tactile sensing unit for detecting input of interacting signal. In addition, the moving object further integrates an environmental sensing device, an information identifying device or a combination of both and uses the environmental status, text information or audio/video, which are generated from the environmental sensing device or information identifying device, as an input signal through cable or wireless technology so as to generate responsive action through the flexible display or mechanism of the apparatus so that interactivities of the apparatus can be increased.

Claims

1. An apparatus with surface information displaying and interaction capability, comprising:

a moving object;

a skin unit, covering at least a part of the exterior surface of the moving object while having a flexible display formed therein;

a tactile sensing unit, disposed on the skin unit for enabling the same to detect and measure the magnitude and position of a touch contacting the skin unit; and

a control unit, disposed on the moving object for controlling movements of the moving object and for controlling the skin unit to display an interactive information based on the sensing signals from the tactile sensing unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the moving object is a robot, integrating a plurality of body modules for motion expression, selected from the group consisting of an industrial robotic arm, a mobile robot, an interactive robot, a guidance robot, a security robot, a homecare robot, an education robot, and an entertainment robot.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the moving object is a device selected from the group consisting of a toy with motion expression ability, a portable electronic device with motion expression ability, a billboard of complicated curved surfaces with motion expression ability, and a device with specific motion expression ability.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the flexible display is a device, capable of displaying colors and gray levels, selected form the group consisting of a flexible electrical display and a flexible paper-like display.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interaction data includes colors, patterns, and text which are displayed by two-dimension or three-dimension.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tactile sensing unit is a tactile sensor, selected from the group consisting of a single-point tactile sensor, a multiple-point tactile sensor, and an array tactile sensor, capable of measuring and detecting the magnitude and position of the touch while transmitting data of the touch relating to its magnitude and position to the control unit to be used as a basis of a logical decision performed by the control unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the tactile sensor is a device, capable of detecting the magnitude and position of a touch, selected from the group consisting of a piezoelectric tactile sensor, a resistive tactile sensor, a capacitive tactile sensor and deformation of an elastic object.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the tactile sensor is substantially a sensor having a plurality of flexible airbags distributed therein, each being used as a soft interface, capable of measuring and mapping a pressure distribution caused by the touch and detecting the position of the touch while transmitting data of the touch relating to its magnitude and position to the control unit to be used as a basis of a logical decision performed by the control unit.

9. An apparatus with surface information displaying and interaction capability, comprising:

a moving object;

a skin unit, covering at least a part of the exterior surface of the moving object while having a flexible display formed therein;

an environmental sensing device, capable of detecting an ambient environment of the moving object and thus generating a sensing signal accordingly; and

a control unit, disposed on the moving object for controlling movements of the moving object and for controlling the skin unit to display an interactive information based on the sensing signal of the environmental sensing device.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the moving object is a robot, integrating a plurality of body modules for motion expression, selected from the group consisting of an industrial robotic arm, a mobile robot, an interactive robot, a guidance robot, a security robot, a homecare robot, an education robot, and an entertainment robot.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the moving object is a device selected from the group consisting of a toy with motion expression ability, a portable electronic device with motion expression ability, a billboard of complicated curved surfaces with motion expression ability, and a device with specific motion expression ability.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the flexible display is a device, capable of displaying colors and gray levels, selected form the group consisting of a flexible electrical display and a flexible paper-like display.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the interaction data includes colors, patterns, and text which are displayed by two-dimension or three-dimension.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the environmental sensing device is capable of being enabled to detect one phenomenon selected from the group consisting of ambient temperature, ambient sound, ambient color, ambient atmosphere content, and ambient vibration and the combination thereof.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the environmental sensing device further comprises an input interface, used for receiving the input of a signal selected form the group consisting of a physiological signal of an operator, a signal relating to a mood change of the operator, and the combination thereof.

16. An apparatus with surface information displaying and interaction capability, comprising:

a moving object;

a skin unit, covering at least a part of the exterior surface of the moving object while having a flexible display formed therein;

an information identifying device, for receiving and analyzing an electrical data and thus generating a resulting signal of the analysis accordingly; and

a control unit, disposed on the moving object for controlling the movements of the moving object and for controlling the skin unit to display an interactive information based on the resulting signal of the analysis.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the moving object is a robot, integrating a plurality of body modules for motion expression, selected from the group consisting of an industrial robotic arm, a mobile robot, an interactive robot, a guidance robot, a security robot, a homecare robot, an education robot, and an entertainment robot.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the moving object is a device selected from the group consisting of a toy with motion expression ability, a portable electronic device with motion expression ability, a billboard of complicated curved surfaces with motion expression ability, and a device with specific motion expression ability.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the flexible display is a device, capable of displaying colors and gray levels, selected form the group consisting of a flexible electrical display and a flexible paper-like display.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the interaction data includes colors, patterns, and text which are displayed by two-dimension or three-dimension.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the information identifying device is capable of recognizing and analyzing a text while defining the meaning of the text or the categorizing result of the text as the resulting signal of the analysis.

22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the information identifying device is capable of recognizing and analyzing a vocal data to specify designated words and sounds while defining the meaning of the words/sounds or the categorizing result of the words/sounds as the resulting signal of the analysis.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the information identifying device is capable of recognizing and analyzing a dynamic video data or static image picture to specify designated patterns and features while defining the meaning of the patterns/features or the categorizing result of the patterns/features as the resulting signal of the analysis.