Haptic peripheral having a deformable substrate configured for amplified deformation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9849379-B2
Application number	US-201514951828-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2015
Priority date	Nov 25, 2015
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A haptic peripheral includes a housing, a deformable substrate coupled to the housing to be moveable thereto, and a smart material actuator coupled to a surface of the deformable substrate. The smart material actuator produces a force that deforms the deformable substrate relative to the housing in response to the control signal from a processor to thereby provide a haptic effect to a user of the haptic peripheral. The deformable substrate includes at least one user contact portion configured to contact the user and two opposing hinges. The deformable substrate also includes at least two stiff arms, each stiff arm extending between the user contact portion and one of the two opposing hinges. The stiff arms are relatively stiffer than the user contact portion and the hinges such that the deformable substrate is configured to increase the deformation of the deformable substrate relative to the housing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A haptic peripheral comprising:
a housing;
a deformable substrate coupled to the housing and deformable relative to the housing, wherein the deformable substrate includes at least one user contact portion and two opposing hinges; and
a smart material actuator coupled to a surface of the deformable substrate, wherein the smart material actuator is configured to receive a control signal from a processor and deforms the deformable substrate relative to the housing in response to the control signal from the processor to thereby provide a haptic effect to a user of the haptic peripheral,
wherein the deformable substrate includes at least two stiff arms, each stiff arm extending between the user contact portion and one of the two opposing hinges, wherein the stiff arms are relatively stiffer than the user contact portion and the opposing hinges, and the deformation of the deformable substrate causes a displacement of the user contact portion from a first height to a second height, wherein the second height has a greater distance from the housing than the first height.

2. A haptic peripheral comprising:
a housing;
a deformable substrate coupled to the housing to be moveable thereto, wherein the deformable substrate includes at least one user contact portion and two opposing hinges; and
a smart material actuator coupled to a surface of the deformable substrate, wherein the smart material actuator is configured to receive a control signal from a processor and is configured to deform the deformable substrate relative to the housing in response to the control signal from the processor to thereby provide a haptic effect to a user of the haptic peripheral,
wherein the deformable substrate includes at least two stiff arms, each stiff arm extending between the user contact portion and one of the two opposing hinges, wherein the stiff arms are relatively stiffer than the user contact portion and the opposing hinges, such that the deformable substrate is configured to increase the deformation of the deformable substrate relative to the housing, and
wherein the deformable substrate has an oval cross-section and includes two opposing user contact portions configured to contact the user and four stiff arms, each hinge of the opposing hinges being positioned between the opposing user contact portions and each stiff arm extending between each user contact portion and each hinge of the opposing hinges.

3. The haptic peripheral of claim 2 , wherein the smart material actuator includes a first smart material actuator coupled to one of the opposing user contact portions and the smart material actuator includes a second smart material actuator coupled to the other of the opposing user contact portions.

4. The haptic peripheral of claim 3 , wherein the first and second smart material actuators are coupled to exterior surfaces of the deformable substrate and wherein a height of the deformable substrate expands and a width of the deformable substrate contracts when the first and second smart material actuators produce a force that moves the deformable substrate relative to the housing.

5. The haptic peripheral of claim 3 , wherein the first and second smart material actuators are coupled to interior surfaces of the deformable substrate and wherein a height of the deformable substrate expands and a width of the deformable substrate contracts when the first and second smart material actuators produce a force that moves the deformable substrate relative to the housing.

6. The haptic peripheral of claim 2 , wherein the deformable substrate includes two parallelograms curved into the oval cross-section.

7. The haptic peripheral of claim 2 , wherein the deformable substrate is ovoid shaped.

8. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein the stiff arms are formed from a first material and the user contact portion and the opposing hinges are formed from a second material, the first material being different from the second material and having a higher stiffness than the second material.

9. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein the stiff arms are at least 30% thicker than the user contact portion and the opposing hinges.

10. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein deformation of the smart material actuator causes increased deformation of the user contact portion of the deformable substrate relative to deformation of the stiff arms of the deformable substrate.

11. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein the deformable substrate is formed from a glass fiber or carbon fiber composite material and the smart material actuator is formed from a macro fiber composite material or an electroactive polymer.

12. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein the deformable substrate is incorporated onto a user input element that is configured to receive an input from the user.

13. The haptic peripheral of claim 1 , wherein the deformable substrate is coupled to the housing by a rod and a compressible substance that surrounds the rod and extends between the rod and the deformable substrate, the compressible substance being configured to permit the deformation of the deformable substrate relative to the housing.

14. A haptic peripheral comprising:
a housing;
a deformable substrate coupled to the housing and deformable relative to the housing; and
a smart material actuator coupled to a surface of the deformable substrate, wherein the smart material actuator is configured to receive a control signal from a processor and produces a force that deforms the deformable substrate relative to the housing in response to the control signal from the processor to thereby provide a haptic effect to a user of the haptic peripheral,
wherein at least a first portion of the deformable substrate is stiffer than a second portion of the deformable substrate, and the deformation of the deformable substrate causes a displacement of the second portion from a first height to a second height, wherein the second height has a greater distance from the housing than the first height.

15. The haptic peripheral of claim 14 , wherein the deformable substrate has an oval cross-section and the smart material actuator includes a first smart material actuator coupled to a first surface of the deformable substrate and the smart material actuator includes a second smart material actuator coupled to a second surface of the deformable substrate, the second surface opposing the first surface.

16. The haptic peripheral of claim 14 , wherein the first portion of the deformable substrate is at least 30% thicker than the second portion of the deformable substrate and the deformation of the second portion of the deformable substrate is increased relative to the deformation of the first portion of the deformable substrate.

17. The haptic peripheral of claim 14 , wherein the first portion of the deformable substrate is formed from a first material and the second portion of the deformable substrate is formed from a second material, the first material being different from the second material and having a higher stiffness than the second material and the deformation of the second portion of the deformable substrate is increased relative to the deformation of the first portion of the deformable substrate.

18. A gaming system comprising:
a host computer;
a processor; and
a haptic peripheral including a housing, a deformable substrate coupled to the housing and deformable relative to the housing, and a smart material actuator coupled to a surface of the deformable substrate, wherein the smart material actuator produces a force that

Assignees

• Immersion Corp

Inventors

• Alghooneh Mansoor
• Hernandez Juan Manuel Cruz
• Khoshkava Vahid
• Grant Danny

Classifications

• A63F13/285 Primary

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

• G06F3/016 Primary

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

• H02N2/043

  Mechanical transmission means, e.g. for stroke amplification · CPC title

• A63F2300/1043

  being characterized by constructional details · CPC title

• A63F13/28 Primary

  responding to control signals received from the game device for affecting ambient conditions, e.g. for vibrating players' seats, activating scent dispensers or affecting temperature or light · CPC title