Refreshable braille display accessory for a game controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10463978-B2
Application number	US-201715445771-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2017
Priority date	Feb 1, 2017
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a refreshable braille display accessory for a game controller that includes a housing sized to be received by a handheld game controller, a braille display including a plurality of pins arranged in a plurality of braille cells, each of the plurality of braille cells to provide tactile feedback representative of individual braille characters, and a control circuit enclosed within the housing to control refreshable activation of at least a portion of the plurality of pins based at least in part on a translation of game text or game audio.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A braille display, comprising:
a housing sized to be received by a handheld game controller;
a plurality of pins arranged as a plurality of braille cells, each of the plurality of braille cells including six pins arranged in two columns and three rows; and
a control circuit to control refreshable actuation of the plurality of pins to provide tactile feedback to a finger based at least in part on a translation of game text or game audio to individual braille characters represented on each of the plurality of braille cells.

2. The braille display of claim 1 , wherein the housing includes an attachment mechanism to removably attach the housing to the handheld game controller.

3. The braille display of claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of pins are arranged over an electroactive polymer film; and
wherein each of the plurality of pins protrudes above a top end of the housing in an active state to provide the tactile feedback to the finger based at least in part on the translation of the game text or game audio to the individual braille characters represented on each of the plurality of braille cells.

4. The braille display of claim 3 ,
wherein each pin of the plurality of pins includes an electroactive polymer; and
wherein the control circuit delivers a current to the electroactive polymer to actuate the pin to the active state based at least in part on the translation of the game text or the game audio to the individual braille characters.

5. The braille display of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of braille cells are vertically arranged from top to bottom and from left to right.

6. The braille display of claim 1 , further comprising:
a scroll actuator to scroll the translation of the game text or the game audio to the individual braille characters one character at a time.

7. The braille display of claim 6 , wherein the scroll actuator scrolls the translation of the game text or the game audio one character at a time in a vertical direction, with an oldest character represented by a top left braille cell being scrolled off the braille display and with a newest character to be represented by a bottom right braille cell being scrolled on to the braille display.

8. A game controller accessory, comprising:
a handheld housing including a braille display configured to be removably attached to a handheld game controller;
a plurality of pins arranged on the braille display as a plurality of braille cells, each braille cell having six pins arranged in two columns and three rows;
a control circuit to control refreshable actuation of the plurality of pins to represent individual braille characters on each of the plurality of braille cells based at least in part on a translation of game text or game audio.

9. The game controller accessory of claim 8 ,
wherein the handheld housing includes an attachment mechanism to removably attach the handheld housing to the handheld game controller.

10. The game controller accessory of claim 9 , wherein the attachment mechanism at least partially surrounds a body of the handheld game controller when removably attached to the handheld game controller.

11. The game controller accessory of claim 8 ,
wherein the plurality of pins are arranged over an electroactive polymer film; and
wherein each of the plurality of pins protrudes above a top end of the housing in an active state to provide tactile feedback to a finger based at least in part on the translation of the game text or game audio to the individual braille characters represented on each of the plurality of braille cells.

12. The game controller accessory of claim 11 ,
wherein each pin of the plurality of pins includes an electroactive polymer; and
wherein the control circuit delivers a current to the electroactive polymer to actuate the pin to the active state based at least in part on the translation of the game text or the game audio to the individual braille characters.

13. The game controller accessory of claim 8 ,
wherein the plurality of braille cells are vertically arranged from top to bottom and from left to right.

14. The game controller accessory of claim 8 , further comprising:
a scroll actuator to scroll the translation of the game text or the game audio to the individual braille characters one character at a time.

15. The game controller accessory of claim 14 ,
wherein the scroll actuator scrolls the translation of the game text or the game audio one character at a time in a vertical direction, with an oldest character represented by a top left braille cell being scrolled off the braille display while a newest character being scrolled on to the braille display to be represented by a bottom right braille cell.

16. The game controller accessory of claim 8 , wherein the control circuit receives the translation of the game text or the game audio.

17. An apparatus, comprising:
a housing sized to be received by a handheld game controller;
a braille display including a plurality of pins arranged in a plurality of braille cells, each of the plurality of braille cells to provide tactile feedback representative of individual braille characters; and
a control circuit enclosed within the housing to control refreshable activation of at least a portion of the plurality of pins based at least in part on a translation of game text or game audio.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the housing includes an attachment mechanism to removably attach the housing to an underside of the handheld game controller.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 ,
wherein the plurality of pins are arranged over an electroactive polymer film; and
wherein each of the plurality of pins protrudes above a top end of the housing in an active state to provide the tactile feedback to a finger based at least in part on the translation of the game text or game audio to the individual braille characters represented on each of the plurality of braille cells.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 ,
wherein each pin of the plurality of pins includes a corresponding electroactive polymer in an electroactive film; and
wherein the control circuit delivers a current or voltage to the electroactive polymer to actuate the pin to the active state based at least in part on the translation of the game text or the game audio to the individual braille characters.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Tran Jessica Julie
• Gaule Patrick Thomas
• Porter Iii John Richard
• Baker Catherine Marie
• Baker Dillon Taylor
• Zahand Brannon James
• Tu Harrison

Classifications

• G09B21/004

  Details of particular tactile cells, e.g. electro-mechanical or mechanical layout · CPC title

• G09B21/003 Primary

  using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays · CPC title

• A63F13/26

  having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth · CPC title

• A63F13/285

  Generating tactile feedback signals via the game input device, e.g. force feedback · CPC title

• G06F3/016

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