Electronic device with actuators for producing haptic and audio output along a device housing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11307661-B2
Application number	US-201816121454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2018
Priority date	Sep 25, 2017
Publication date	Apr 19, 2022
Grant date	Apr 19, 2022

Abstract

An electronic device has a housing that forms an exterior surface of the electronic device. An array of actuators is coupled to the housing and is operable to move the housing in order to produce sound waves and/or haptic output via the exterior surface. In this way, less space is consumed by acoustic and haptic devices as compared to similar conventional devices, thereby allowing for thinner electronic devices and/or room for other components within the housing. The actuators may be operable to move different regions of the housing to produce sound waves and/or haptic output within different frequency ranges.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a housing having a wall that defines an exterior surface of the electronic device;
a sensor operable to detect a touch along the exterior surface;
an array of actuators positioned below the wall; and
a processing unit operably coupled to the sensor and the array of actuators and that is operable to:
produce an audio output using the array of actuators while the touch is present along the exterior surface;
determine a location of the touch using the sensor;
in response to determining that the location of the touch is proximate to a first actuator of the array of actuators, cause the array of actuators to be driven by an audio waveform that produces a modified audio output, the modified audio output produced using at least the first actuator; and
in response to determining that the location of the touch is proximate to the first actuator and in response to determining that a force of the touch exceeds a threshold, cause the array of actuators to be driven by a haptic waveform that produces a haptic output, the audio waveform including audio waveform portions, the haptic waveform including haptic waveform portions, and the audio waveform portions being multiplexed with the haptic waveform portions.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the processing unit is operable to determine a type of audio corresponding to the audio output;
in accordance with the type of audio being a notification-type of audio, the processing unit is operable to delay the modified audio output; and
in accordance with the type of audio being a media-stream-type of audio, the processing unit is operable to increase the modified audio output.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the array of actuators comprises:
a first group of actuators of the array of actuators operable to move a first group of regions of the housing to produce a high-frequency audio output having a first frequency range; and
a second group of actuators of the array of actuators to move a second group of regions of the housing to produce a low-frequency audio output having a second frequency range that is different than the first frequency range.

4. The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein:
each region of the first group of regions is smaller than each region of the second group of regions; and
the first frequency range is higher than the second frequency range.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein:
the housing is a lower housing;
the wall is a first wall;
the exterior surface is a first exterior surface;
the array of actuators is a first array of actuators; and
the electronic device further comprises:
an upper housing, pivotably connected to the lower housing and having a second wall that defines a second exterior surface of the electronic device;
a second array of actuators positioned below the second wall;
a display coupled to the upper housing; and
a keyboard coupled to the lower housing.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further operable to:
the modified audio output using at least a second actuator of the array of actuators.

7. An electronic device comprising:
a housing that defines an exterior surface of the electronic device;
an audio sensor operable to sense a first audio output of the electronic device;
an array of actuators positioned below a wall of the housing;
a sensor configured to determine a location of a touch on the exterior surface; and
a processing unit operably coupled to the audio sensor and the array of actuators and operable to:
produce the first audio output using the array of actuators while the touch is present on the exterior surface;
monitor the first audio output using the audio sensor;
determine if the first audio output is different from an expected audio output; and
in response to determining that the first audio output is different from the expected audio output, cause the array of actuators to be driven by an audio waveform that produces a second audio output that is different from the first audio output; and
in response to determining that the location of the touch is proximate to a first actuator and that a force of the touch exceeds a threshold, cause the array of actuators to be driven by a haptic waveform that produces a haptic output, the audio waveform including audio waveform portions, the haptic waveform including haptic waveform portions, and the audio waveform portions being multiplexed with the haptic waveform portions.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the processing unit is operable to produce the second audio output by adjusting a frequency or an amplitude of a signal provided to at least a first actuator of the array of actuators.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein:
the electronic device further comprises a keyboard and a trackpad; and
the array of actuators is operable to move a region of the wall of the housing adjacent to at least one of the keyboard or the trackpad to produce the first audio output or the second audio output.

10. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the processing unit is operable to determine the location of the touch on the exterior surface using a difference between the first audio output and the expected audio output.

11. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein:
the housing defines an array of thinned regions; and
one or more actuators of the array of actuators are coupled to a respective thinned region of the array of thinned regions.

12. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing that defines an exterior surface of the electronic device;
a sensor operable to detect a touch along the exterior surface;
an array of actuators positioned below a wall of the housing; and
a processing unit operably coupled to the sensor and the array of actuators and operable to:
cause the array of actuators to be driven by a first audio waveform that moves a first region of the wall of the housing to produce an audio output;
detect the touch along the first region of the wall of the housing using the sensor;
in response to detecting the touch, cause the array of actuators to be driven by a second audio waveform that moves a second region of the wall of the housing to produce the audio output; and
in response to a force of the touch along the exterior surface exceeding a threshold, cause the array of actuators to be driven by a haptic waveform that produces a haptic output, the second audio waveform including audio waveform portions, the haptic waveform including haptic waveform portions, and the audio waveform portions being multiplexed with the haptic waveform portions.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the processing unit is operable to cease movement of the first region in response to detecting the touch.

14. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein:
the processing unit is operable to compare the audio output to an expected audio output; and
the processing unit is operable to cause the array of actuators to be driven by the second audio waveform in response to a determination that the audio output is different than the expected audio output.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the audio output produced by driving the array of actuators with the second audio waveform has a frequency range that is shifted with respect to the audio output produced by driving the array of actuators with the first audio waveform.

16. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the processing unit is operable to cause continued movement of the first region to produc

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Miller Ari P
• Crosby Justin D
• Boothe Daniel K
• Farahani Houtan R
• Robinson Kevin M
• Mihelich Ryan J
• Lockwood Robert J

Classifications

• H04R2400/03

  Transducers capable of generating both sound as well as tactile vibration, e.g. as used in cellular phones · CPC title

• H04R1/24

  Structural combinations of separate transducers or of two parts of the same transducer and responsive respectively to two or more frequency ranges · CPC title

• H04R17/00

  Piezoelectric transducers; Electrostrictive transducers (piezoelectric or electrostrictive elements in general H10N30/00; details of piezoelectric or electrostrictive motors, generators or positioners {H10N30/00}) · CPC title

• H04R2499/11

  Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's · CPC title

• H04R9/06

  Loudspeakers · CPC title