Haptic feedback for interactions with foldable-bendable displays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9524030-B2
Application number	US-201414222303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2014
Priority date	Apr 26, 2013
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

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 bendable-foldable display comprising: a first flexible flap and a second flexible flap coupled by a hinge; a haptic output device; a sensor electronically coupled to the first flap and the second flap to receive a folding characteristic signal based on a value of an opening angle between the first flap and the second flap, and to receive a bending characteristic signal of the first flap based on an amount of a bend radius of the first flap; and a drive circuit electronically coupled to an actuator configured to produce a haptic effect based on the folding characteristic signal and the bending characteristic signal, wherein the bending characteristic signal corresponds to an action of flexing a bendable portion of the first flap and the folding characteristic signal corresponds to an action of opening the hinge; and wherein the haptic output device provides kinesthetic feedback of the hinge in response to the folding characteristic signal and kinesthetic feedback of the first flap in response to the bending characteristic signal.

2. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the drive circuit, based on the sensor detecting a sequence of signals comprising a touch pressure, an increase in the bend radius, and a decrease of the opening angle, generates a particular haptic feedback.

3. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback of the hinge modulates stiffness of the opening based on application settings for an application on the device and the folding characteristic signal; and wherein the kinesthetic feedback of the first flap modulates stiffness of the flexing based on application settings of the display and the bending characteristic signal.

4. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 : further comprising: memory to store the folding characteristic signal as a pre-fold status signal prior to a change in the folding characteristic signal, wherein after the change in the folding characteristic signal, the drive circuit controls the hinge to produce approximately the pre-fold status signal as the folding characteristic signal, and wherein an application on the device provides a visual change corresponding to the changing folding characteristic signal.

5. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , further comprising: memory to store the folding characteristic signal as a post-fold status signal after a change in the folding characteristic signal; memory to store the bending characteristic signal as a post-bend status signal after a change in the bending characteristic signal, wherein upon a change in the folding characteristic signal and change in the bending characteristic signal indicate a minimal value of bending and a small opening in the hinge, the drive circuit controls the hinge to produce approximately the post-fold status signal as the folding characteristic, and wherein an application on the device provides a visual change corresponding to the changing folding characteristic signal.

6. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the drive circuit controls the device in response to an application on the device that displays an object on the first flap of the display, wherein the application contains physical property information about each object displayed, wherein the drive circuit provides kinesthetic feedback in response to the bending characteristic signal of the first flap to stiffen or relax bendability of the first flap based on the physical property information of the object displayed on the first flap.

7. The bendable-foldable display of claim 6 , wherein the drive circuit further:
controls vibrotactile feedback in response to the application on the device, wherein the vibrotactile feedback provides a haptic response based on input from a touch sensor.

8. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the folding characteristic signal changes indicating a change in position of the hinge indicating that the foldable portion of the device is closing, and wherein the drive circuit produces, prior to the closing of the foldable portion, kinesthetic feedback to control the foldable portion closed.

9. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the folding characteristic signal changes indicating a change in position of the hinge indicating that the foldable portion of the device is opening, and wherein the drive circuit produces, prior to the opening of the foldable portion, kinesthetic feedback to control the foldable portion open.

10. The bendable-foldable display of claim 1 , wherein the folding characteristic signal changes indicating a change in position of the hinge indicating that the foldable portion of the device is closing, and wherein the folding characteristic signal changes indicating a further change in the position of the hinge indicating that the hinge is closed, and wherein the drive circuit produces haptic feedback on the haptic output device.

11. The bendable-foldable display device of claim 1 , wherein the folding characteristic signal indicates that the hinge is fully closed, wherein the folding characteristic signal changes to indicate that the hinge is opening, and wherein the drive circuit produces haptic feedback on the haptic output device.

12. A haptic system comprising one or more haptic output devices integrated into a bendable-foldable display comprising: sensor information receivers for receiving input from one or more sensors indicating deformation of the bendable-foldable display device having a first flexible flap and a second flexible flap coupled by a hinge, wherein the one or more sensors are configured to detect a folding characteristic based on a value of an opening angle between the first flexible flap and the second flexible flap and configured to detect a bending characteristic in at least one flap based on an amount of bend radius of the at least one flap; a processor for determining deformation characteristics of the bendable-foldable display device, wherein the determination is based on the folding characteristic and the bending characteristic; and a haptic feedback generator that generates a haptic feedback based on the deformation characteristics, wherein the deformation characteristics correspond to an action of flexing a bendable portion of the display and opening a foldable portion of the display; and wherein the haptic feedback includes kinesthetic feedback of the foldable portion of the display and kinesthetic feedback of the bendable portion of the display.

13. The system device of claim 12 , wherein the haptic feedback generator, based on the sensor detecting a sequence of signals comprising a touch pressure, an increase in the bend radius, and a decrease of the opening angle, generates a particular haptic feedback.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the kinesthetic feedback of the foldable portion of display modulates stiffness of the opening based on application settings for an application on the device and the deformation characteristics; and wherein the kinesthetic feedback of the bendable portion of the display modulates stiffness of the flexing based on the application settings and deformation characteristics.

15. The system claim 12 , wherein: the processor stores pre-deformation position input from the one or more sensors prior to the deformation; and the haptic feedback generator: controls one or more haptic actuators to return the foldable-bendable display near to its pre-deformation position based on the pre-deformation input; and causes an application on the device to provide a visual change corresponding to the deformation characteristics.

16.

Assignees

• Immersion Corp

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04M1/0268

  including a flexible display panel · CPC title

• G06F1/1652

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

• G06F3/017 Primary

  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

• G06F3/0483

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

• G06F3/0487

  using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser · CPC title