TACTILE DISPLAY AND CAD SYSTEM

• US 20120188192A1
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nagoya Institute of Technology, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nagoya Institute of Technology, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujimoto, Hideo, Sano, Akihito, Tanaka, Yoshihiro, Kajisa, Eisuke, Wada, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 8,836,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/003 Cine-projectors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/003 using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays

Abstract

A tactile device of a tactile display slides above an object. The tactile device comprises three rods which are free to move up and down. Lower ends of the rods are in contact with a surface of the object. Upper ends of respective rods touch a palmar-side skin equivalent to positions of three joints of a first finger or a second finger. When the tactile device is slid, upper ends of respective rods move up and down in accordance with a surface relief of the object. In response to the movement of the tactile device, the three rods push three finger joint positions of the palmar-side skin with a stroke equal to a height of the relief.

Claims

1. A tactile display that locally applies a stimulus on a finger joint position of a human palmar-side skin in response to a movement of a human hand, the display comprising:

a tactile device wearable on the human hand and having at least one extensible rod that extends from a surface of the tactile device and that has a tip positioned to face toward a finger joint;

a sensor that detects a movement of the tactile device;

a memory unit that stores surface shape data of the object; and

a controller that controls a stroke from the surface of the tactile device to the tip of each rod;

wherein the controller places in a virtual space a virtual object that is defined by the surface shape data, determines a position of the tactile device on a surface of the virtual object model based on an output of the sensor, and determines the stroke of each rod in accordance with a height of a relief at a surface position of the virtual object corresponding to a position of each rod.

2. The tactile display of claim 1, wherein two adjacent rods are arranged, separated by a length corresponding to a distance between adjacent finger joints.

4. The tactile display of claim 1, wherein:

a surface of the tip of each rod that contacts with a human finger curves with a curvature substantially equal to the curvature of the finger in a circumferential direction.

6. The tactile display of claim 1, wherein the tactile device comprises a first portion that supports a human fingertip and a second portion that supports a part of a human palm when the tactile device is worn by the person.

7. A CAD system comprising:

the tactile display of claim 1; and

an input device connected to the controller of the tactile display,

wherein;

the controller modifies the height of the relief in the surface shape data in accordance with an operation amount by a person detected by the input device, the height of the relief corresponding to the position of each rod of the tactile device, and controls each rod so that the stroke corresponds to a modified height of the relief.

3. The tactile display of claim comprising a plurality of rods, each tip of which contacts with same types of joints of an index finger, a middle finger, and an annular finger:

5. (canceled)

8. (canceled)