SYSTEM INTEGRATION OF TACTILE FEEDBACK AND TOUCHSCREEN CONTROLLER FOR NEAR-ZERO LATENCY HAPTICS PLAYOUT

• US 20110260990A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: DeCanne, Bart, Nickson, Paul, Ali, Yassir, Blankenship, Timothy Lance, Coleman, Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,698,766 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/96 Touch switches specially adapted for electronic time-pieces with no moving parts G04G21/08
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96062 with tactile or haptic feedback

Abstract

A haptic feedback system includes a user interface device, such as a touchscreen that includes a touch panel and one or more haptic drive elements coupled to the touch panel, a touch controller, and an actuator controller. The touch controller receives sensed data from the touch panel, and in response generates and sends a haptic signal to an actuator controller. Generation and transmission of the haptic signal bypasses any system host controller. A dedicated signal path couples the touch controller and the actuator controller, over which the haptic signal is transmitted. Alternatively, the haptic signal is transmitted from the touch controller to the actuator controller over a serial bus interface. In response to the received haptic signal, the actuator controller implements an appropriate drive signal in the form of a haptic waveform to the one or more haptic drive elements of the touchscreen.

Claims

1. A touch feedback system comprising:

a. a user touch interface comprising an interface surface and a drive element coupled to the interface surface, wherein the interface surface is configured to sense a touch event and to transmit sensed data in response to the determined touch event;

b. a touch controller coupled to the user touch interface to receive the sensed data and to generate and output a trigger signal in response to the sensed data;

c. a transmission path coupling the touch controller to a drive element controller; and

d. the drive element controller coupled to the touch controller and to the interface surface, wherein the drive element controller is configured to receive the trigger signal from the touch controller via the transmission path and to output a drive signal to the drive element in response to the received trigger signal.

2. The touch feedback system of claim 1 wherein the touch controller converts the sensed data to digital information.

3. The touch feedback system of claim 2 further comprising a system host controller coupled to the touch controller to receive the digital information, wherein the system host controller is configured to perform system level processing corresponding to the digital information, further wherein the system host controller does not generate and output a control signal to the drive element controller in response to the digital information.

4. The touch feedback system of claim 1 wherein the drive element comprises a haptic actuator or an audio speaker.

5. The touch feedback system of claim 1 wherein a latency between sensing the touch event and activating the drive element is equal to or less than 30 milliseconds.

6. A haptic feedback system comprising:

a. a user touch interface comprising an interface surface and a haptic actuator coupled to the interface surface, wherein the interface surface is configured to sense a touch event and to transmit sensed data in response to the sensed touch event;

b. a touch controller coupled to the user touch interface to receive the sensed data and to generate and output a haptic signal in response to the sensed data;

c. a transmission path coupling the touch controller to a haptic actuator controller; and

d. the haptic actuator controller coupled to the touch controller and to the interface surface, wherein the haptic actuator controller is configured to receive the haptic signal from the touch controller via the transmission path and to output a haptic waveform to the haptic actuator in response to the received haptic signal.

7. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the user touch interface comprises a touchscreen and the touch controller comprises a touchscreen controller.

8. The haptic feedback system of claim 7 wherein the touchscreen comprises a capacitive touchscreen.

9. The haptic feedback system of claim 7 wherein the touchscreen comprises a resistive touchscreen.

10. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the interface surface comprises a display surface.

11. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the interface surface comprises one or more push buttons.

12. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the interface surface comprises one or more capacitive buttons.

13. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the transmission path comprises a single line interconnect.

14. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the transmission path comprises a multiple line interconnect.

15. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the transmission path comprises a serial bus interface.

16. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the transmission path comprises a direct connection between the touch controller and the haptic actuator controller.

17. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the haptic signal comprises a haptic trigger signal.

18. The haptic feedback system of claim 17 wherein the haptic actuator controller comprises a memory configured to store a plurality of haptic waveforms to drive the haptic actuator, further wherein the haptic trigger signal includes a haptic waveform identification used by the haptic actuator controller to select one of the stored plurality of haptic waveforms to output to the haptic actuator.

19. The haptic feedback system of claim 17 further comprising a haptic waveform repository coupled to the haptic actuator controller, wherein the haptic waveform repository is configured to store a plurality of haptic waveforms to drive the haptic actuator, further wherein the haptic trigger signal includes a haptic waveform identification used by the haptic actuator controller to select one of the stored plurality of haptic waveforms to output to the haptic actuator.

20. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the haptic signal comprises a low voltage haptic waveform, further wherein the haptic actuator controller is configured to receive boost the low voltage haptic waveform to a high voltage haptic waveform sufficient to actuate the haptic actuator.

21. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the touch controller converts the sensed data to digital information.

22. The haptic feedback system of claim 21 further comprising a system host controller coupled to the touch controller to receive the digital information, wherein the system host controller is configured to perform system level processing corresponding to the digital information, further wherein the system host controller does not generate and output a haptic related signal to the haptic actuator controller in response to the digital information.

23. The haptic feedback system of claim 21 wherein the sensed data comprises touch coordinate data.

24. The haptic feedback system of claim 21 wherein the sensed data comprises pressure data.

25. The haptic feedback system of claim 22 further comprising a serial bus interface coupled to the touch controller, the haptic actuator controller, and the system host controller.

26. The haptic feedback system of claim 25 wherein the serial bus interface is independent and separate from the transmission path.

27. The haptic feedback system of claim 25 wherein the serial bus interface comprises the transmission path, further wherein the haptic signal is addressed to the haptic actuator controller by the touch controller.

28. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein a latency between sensing the touch event and activating the haptic actuator is equal to or less than 30 milliseconds.

29. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the touch controller is a separately packaged integrated circuit chip than the haptic actuator controller.

30. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the touch controller comprises a first integrated circuit chip and the haptic actuator controller comprises a second integrated circuit chip, wherein the first integrated circuit chip and the second integrated circuit chip are integrated as a multiple-chip integrated circuit package.

31. The haptic feedback system of claim 6 wherein the haptic actuator is configured to sense the touch event.

32. A method of providing haptic feedback comprising:

a. sensing a touch event on an interface surface;

b. transmitting sensed data to a touch controller in response to the sensed touch event;

c. generating a haptic signal by the touch controller in response to the sensed data;

d. outputting the haptic signal from the touch controller to a haptic actuator controller via a transmission path;

e. outputting a haptic waveform by the haptic actuator controller to a haptic actuator coupled to the interface surface in response to the haptic signal; and

f. actuating the haptic actuator according to the haptic waveform.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the transmission path comprises a single line interconnect and the method further comprises transmitting the haptic trigger signal over the single line interconnect.

34. The method of claim 32 wherein the transmission path comprises a multiple line interconnect and the method further comprises transmitting the haptic trigger signal over the multiple line interconnect.

35. The method of claim 32 wherein the transmission path comprises a serial bus interface and the method further comprises transmitting the haptic trigger signal over the serial bus interface.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein generating the haptic signal comprises addressing the haptic signal with an address of the haptic actuator controller.

37. The method of claim 32 wherein the haptic signal comprises a haptic trigger signal.

38. The method of claim 37 further comprising receiving the haptic trigger signal by the haptic actuator controller and selecting a haptic waveform in response to the received haptic trigger signal.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising storing a plurality of haptic waveforms, and selecting the haptic waveform comprising selecting one of the plurality of haptic waveforms according to a haptic waveform identification included in the haptic trigger signal.

40. The method of claim 32 wherein the haptic signal comprises a low voltage haptic waveform, further wherein the haptic actuator controller is configured to receive boost the low voltage haptic waveform to a high voltage haptic waveform sufficient to actuate the haptic actuator.

41. The method of claim 32 further comprising converting the sensed data to digital information by the touch controller.

42. The method of claim 41 further comprising transmitting the digital information from the touch controller to a system host controller, wherein the system host controller performs system level processing corresponding to the digital information, further wherein the system host controller does not generate and output a haptic related signal to the haptic actuator controller in response to the digital information.

43. The method of claim 32 wherein a latency between sensing the touch event and activating the haptic actuator is equal to or less than 30 milliseconds.

44. The method of claim 32 wherein the sensed data comprises touch coordinate data.

45. The method of claim 32 wherein the sensed data comprises pressure data.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein transmitting sensed data to the touch controller comprises transmitting pressure data sensed on the interface surface to the haptic actuator controller and from the haptic actuator controller to the touch controller.