Haptic feedback for interactions with foldable-bendable displays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10048758-B2
Application number	US-201615350414-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2016
Priority date	Apr 26, 2013
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

A flexible device includes a bendable-foldable display that has bendable flaps connected by a hinge. The display has sensors for detecting a folding characteristic between the at least two flaps and for detecting a bending characteristic in at least one flap. The display has a haptic system with haptic output devices, where the haptic system receives input from the sensors indicating deformation of the bendable-foldable display device. A flexible device also includes bendable, foldable, or rollable displays that have sensors and actuators to augment user interaction with the device. Based on one or more measurements provided by the input, the haptic system interprets the input to determine deformation characteristics of the bendable-foldable display device. The haptic system generates haptic feedback based on the deformation characteristics.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A haptic effect enabled flexible display device comprising:
a flexible touch surface configured to receive touch input;
a display coupled to the flexible touch surface;
a sensor coupled to the flexible touch surface and configured to generate a bending characteristic signal based on a bend radius of the flexible touch surface;
a kinesthetic haptic output device configured to provide kinesthetic feedback in response to the bending characteristic signal; and
a drive circuit electrically coupled to an actuator and configured to cause the actuator to produce a haptic effect in response to the bending characteristic signal.

2. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 1 , wherein the bend radius is defined by a plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges.

3. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges corresponds to a particular haptic effect to be provided by the kinesthetic haptic output device.

4. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges corresponds to a particular display characteristic of the display.

5. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges corresponds to a haptically generated programmable detent.

6. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 1 , wherein the haptic effect enabled flexible display device is configured to be worn by a user.

7. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 1 , wherein the display is flexible.

8. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 7 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback includes dynamically adjusting a rigidity of the flexible touch surface.

9. The haptic effect enabled flexible display device of claim 1 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback includes dynamically adjusting a rigidity of the flexible touch surface.

10. A display device comprising:
a flexible touch surface configured to receive touch input;
a display coupled to the flexible touch surface;
one or more sensors configured to detect a bending characteristic in the flexible touch surface based on a bend radius of the flexible touch surface;
a processor configured to determine deformation characteristics of the flexible touch surface according to the bending characteristic; and
a haptic feedback generator configured to generate a haptic feedback based on the deformation characteristics, wherein the haptic feedback includes kinesthetic feedback of the flexible touch surface.

11. The display device of claim 10 , wherein the haptic feedback generator generates the haptic feedback, based on the sensor detecting a sequence of signals comprising a touch pressure and a change in the bend radius, specific to the sequence of signals.

12. The display device of claim 10 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback of the flexible touch surface modulates a stiffness of the flexible touch surface based on application settings for an application on the device and the deformation characteristics.

13. The display device of claim 10 , wherein the bend radius is defined by a plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges.

14. The display device of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges corresponds to a particular haptic effect to be provided by the haptic output device.

15. The display device of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges corresponds to a haptically generated programmable detent.

16. The display device of claim 10 , wherein the display is flexible.

17. The display device of claim 16 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback includes dynamically adjusting a rigidity of the flexible touch surface.

18. The display device of claim 10 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback includes dynamically adjusting a rigidity of the flexible touch surface.

19. A haptic system comprising:
one or more haptic output devices,
a flexible display, including
a flexible flap and a display coupled together;
one or more sensors configured to determine a bending radius of the flexible flap within one of a plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges; and
a haptic feedback generator that generates haptic feedback based on the one of the plurality of pre-defined bend radius ranges, wherein the haptic feedback comprises a vibrotactile effect.

20. The haptic system of claim 19 , wherein the haptic feedback further comprises a kinesthetic feedback to control rigidity of the flexible device to make the device more or less stiff.

Assignees

• Immersion Corp

Inventors

• Modarres Ali
• Levesque Vincent
• Grant Danny
• Cruz-Hernandez Juan Manuel

Classifications

• H04M1/0268

  including a flexible display panel · CPC title

• G06F3/0483

  Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06F3/016 Primary

  Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user · CPC title

• G06F1/1652

  the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable · CPC title