Steering wheel input/interactive surface

• US 20070100523A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ralf Trachte
• Original Assignee: Ralf Trachte
• Inventors: Trachte, Ralf
• Granted Patent: US 7,898,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/41
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/143 Touch sensitive instrument input devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1438 Touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/782 on the steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/60 Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/1484 mounted on the steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/08 electrically driven conjoint control of windscreen wiper motor and liquid supply of windscreen washer B60S1/482; conjoint control of windscreen wiper motor and means for cleaning parts o parts other than windscreens or front windows B60S1/56, B60S1/58, B60S1/606
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 1/046 Adaptations on rotatable parts of the steering wheel for accommodation of switches
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 1/06 Rims, e.g. with heating means; Rim covers B62D1/11 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 1/0088 Fabrics having an electronic function
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 7/00 Woven fabrics designed to be resilient, i.e. to recover from compressive stress
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2401/046 Shape recovering or form memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0202 Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the input device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

The steering wheel input is a flexible, interactive input based on a touch-sensitive surface. Groups of functions are available from many positions of hand surfaces and fingers on said surface. A computer keyboard can be simulated. The keypad of a mobile telephone can also be simulated. PDA inputs can be carried out by means of longitudinally aligned pressure places. Travel directions, headlight flashing/dipping and windscreen wipers can be controlled without having to raise the hand from the steering wheel. Continuous encompassment of the hands is corrected by computer. The interactive surface produces ergonomically appropriate and dynamically updated touch areas, particularly around the middle finger, index finger and thumb. More particularly, differentiation occurs with regard to the activities of curbed and extended finger positions. The applications on the steering wheel are highlighted and descriegd with variants. The touch areas are continuously and dynamically adapted in the relationship thereof with respect to the hands or balls of the thumb and fingers. They can also be continuously and dynamically adapted by measuring the real actuated touch places within an experienced time period. Adaptation and training of the input surface areas i.e. the instantaneous touch areas valid for respective signals also occurs by actuation itself. Said interactive surface can: a) react upon touch, b) exhibit fine motor, perceivable, tactile feedback in terms of switch behavior and c) offer fabric layers or coatings with visual feedback.

Claims

1. An input device, in particular in the form of a steering wheel or steering wheel element, composed of an input face having a plurality of touch-sensitive input face zones and a control unit which is coupled thereto, characterized in that the touching of the input face zones by areas of the hand, in particular by the balls of the hand and by fingers is recognized as being by areas of the hand and fingers and used to calculate the identity of the individual fingers and thus to calculate a temporarily valid basic topography for the areas of the hand and for the fingers with respect to the input face zones, by means of which topography the assignment topography is to be calculated and by means of which assignment topography a respective alphanumeric character or a control function is to be assigned to the input face zones in an instantaneously valid fashion and by means of which in particular also assignment locations of bent finger positions can be differentiated from assignment locations of extended finger positions.

2. The input device of claim 1, characterized in that the determination of a basic topography for the hands of the user with respect to the input face zones takes place in an initialization phase on the basis of the positioned hands of the user and is then continuously adapted to current conditions in an operating phase, and in that as a result an assignment topography which assigns a respective alphanumeric character or a control function to the input face zones in an instantaneously valid fashion is continuously adapted to individual and dynamic conditions.

3. The input device of claim 1, characterized in that the determination of the assignment topography which assigns alphanumeric characters or control functions to the input face zones is carried out in an initialization process according to a defined system which corresponds to a customary computer keyboard or a customary key assignment system for a mobile phone or corresponds to touch zones for up to ten fingers which are arranged in a longitudinal row or corresponds to touch zones around the index finger and thumb, said zones carrying out simple switching and control functions.

4. The input device as claimed in claim 1, composed of an input face with a large number of touch-sensitive input face zones and a control unit which is coupled thereto, characterized in that a grouping of alphanumeric functions or control functions is available from a large number of basic positions of the areas of the hand and fingers with respect to the input face zones, the assignment of which functions to the specific input face zones is continuously and dynamically adapted to individual, instantaneous conditions.

5. The input device as claimed in claim 1, characte-rized in that two, three, four, five or six agreed control functions can continuously be activated from a large number of positions of the areas of the hand and fingers with respect to the input face zones by means of the index finger, middle finger or thumb of the left hand or the right hand.

6. The input device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the instantaneously valid assignment of characters or control functions to the input face zones is displayed visually to the user.

7. A computer input device composed of an input face having a plurality of touch-sensitive input face zones and a control unit coupled thereto, characterized in that it is composed of layers or fabric layers which combine a plurality of interactively effective properties by in particular providing tactile feedback about the through connection of the surface and/or in particular provide visual feedback about the instantaneous, continuously variable assignments between input face zones and triggered characters or control functions, these assignments being in particular continuously dynamically adapted to the locations which are actually touched by typing fingertips and correspond to a variable assignment topography.

8. The computer input device as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that a fabric with electrically effective touch-sensitive fibers or lamellas and a fabric with display properties, in particular with light-emitting fibers, are laid one on top of the other in order to display visually the instantaneous assignment between the input face zone and respective character, this assignment corresponding to a continuously variable assignment topography in particular through continuous dynamic adaptation to the locations which are actually touched by the typing fingertips.

9. The computer input device as claimed in claim 7, composed of an input face with a plurality of touch-sensitive input face zones and a control unit which is coupled thereto, characterized in that a fabric is composed both of touch-sensitive fibers or lamellas which are effective electrically, electrostatically or by means of changes in electrical capacitance, and of fibers with a light emission capability which are woven thereto, said fibers with a light emission capability acting as a plurality of visually recognizable display zones in order to display visually the instantaneous assignment between the input face zone and respective character, this assignment corresponding to a continuously variable assignment topography in particular through continuous dynamic adaptation to the locations which are actually touched by the typing fingertips.

19. The computer input device as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that the aforesaid input face zones are optionally covered with a layer of electronic ink or with a layer of light-emitting polymer, in particular OLED, in order to indicate visually the instantaneous assignment between the input face zone and the respective character.

10. A computer input device composed of an input face having a plurality of touch-sensitive input face zones and a control unit coupled thereto, characterized in that fibers, wires or in particular lamellas which are shaped in such a way are integrated into the touch-sensitive fabric or adjacent fabric layers, in that the ratio of the application of force to the spring travel which can be perceived by the fingers behaves nonlinearly and after a certain small spring travel the further application force does not increase but rather stays the same or decreases again and provides a through connection which can be clearly felt in a sensitive fashion similar to a toggle-lever effect.

11. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that a relatively rigid, elastic fiber or lamella is woven into the fabric layer with appropriate pretension which forms small arches which protrude slightly out of the surface of this fabric layer and can be pressed in elastically by the pressure of a finger in order to provide a through connection which can be clearly felt in a sensitive fashion similar to a toggle-lever effect and these arches in particular can be supported on one another through horizontal offset, that is to say phase shifting, in relation to the respectively adjacent fiber arch or lamella arch and these archs in particular can be made—

instead of customary fibers with a circle-like cross section—

of a lamella-like semifinished product or a ribbon-like semifinished product, that is woven into one of the fabric layers so that in each case an elastic lamella arch produces an input face zone which can be perceived in a tactile fashion.

12. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the integrated elastic fibers or in particular ribbons or lamellas are preformed in such a way that in each case a downward and an upward curvature and again a curvature in the initial direction occur along the surface repeatedly at specific intervals—

that is to say a zigzag shape or wave shape is formed so that during the fixing process of approximately every second, in particular every third or fourth or fifth of these curvature sections in the lower fabric area slight arches are formed which, when pressure is applied by fingers, both spring downwards like an overloaded arch of a bridge and are also compressed in their longitudinal direction, without moving out appreciably in the lateral direction, in order thus to support the spring compression of an arch with a toggle lever effect through their ratio of the height of these curvature sections to the length of the material located between them and through the compressibility in the horizontal direction.

13. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, composed of material layers with an integrated spring wire or lamella, characterized in that loop-like curvatures which are made to extend laterally from a main direction provide a nonlinear through-connection behavior which can be perceived in a sensitive fashion by means of a torsion-loaded section which is combined with a lever section which under load permits the torsion loading to increase disproportionately so that as a result the relative rigidity of the structure, together with the torsional rigidity of these elements, decreases, and characterized in that under load the portion of relative rigidity of the entire structure which is brought about by the flexural rigidity of its elements decreases because the load-bearing vertical component of the elements assumes an increasingly unfavorable angle, that is to say it provides a toggle lever effect.

14. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the fibers or lamellas which provide mechanical properties of the feedback with a toggle lever effect are woven in two directions, in particular directions which are orthogonal to one another, and are linked to one another and thus stabilize one another in their position.

15. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, composed of fabric layers, characterized in that one of the fabric layers is composed of a lower fabric zone which gives this fabric layer a mechanical stability, in particular tensile strength, and is composed of an upper fabric zone which is composed essentially of the fibers, wires or ribbon lamellas to be activated, and has elastic sections, by virtue of the fact that these fibers, wires or ribbon lamellas are woven in as sections which are freely supporting per se. These two aforesaid fabric zones are woven to one another and form that fabric layer which produces feedback for the fingers which can be perceived in a sensitive fashion.

16. The input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the activation causes the aforesaid fiber, wire or lamella arches to approach an electrically conductive fiber, which extends in particular transversely, of the adjacent layer and thus produces a measurable change in capacitance, which has the effect of producing a signal.

17. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the aforesaid electrically effective fibers, lamellas or fabric layers, on the one hand, and light-emitting fibers, on the other, are woven to one another and interact by virtue of the fact that the in particular electrically capacitively effective fibers can be insulated and by approaching already produce a sufficiently large change between the fibers, in particular in the electrical capacitance, which change can be evaluated as a signal triggering process, while the aforesaid visually effective display fibers, in particular light-emitting polymer fibers, emit light precisely through the contact of intersecting fibers and are not insulated.

18. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that an upper fabric layer or plastic layer stabilizes the entire structure in terms of tangentially applied forces and in particular the aforesaid structure can be covered on the surface with an elastic and in particular translucent plastic layer. The compression with the aforesaid particular through-connection behavior remains largely independent of this by virtue of the fact that it takes place in a different, lower fabric layer.

20. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the aforesaid input face zones are optionally covered with a layer of electronic ink or with a layer of light-emitting polymer, in particular OLED, in order to indicate visually the instantaneous assignment between the input face zone and the respective character.

21. The computer input device as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that elements which are frequently integrated into the input face zone are constructed in such a way that part of a respectively acutely angled cantilever is subjected to tensile loading and another part of this cantilever is subjected to compressive loading, the latter producing flexural loading through lateral protrusion of this second part so that when the cantilever is activated approximately perpendicularly with respect to the input face this protrusion bulges out further elastically and the lever thus loses its supporting capability as a result of leverage which becomes increasingly unfavorable, and finally yields at a minimum activation force and provides a nonlinear through connection which can be perceived sensitively.