JP6890038B2 - Tactile transmitter - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a tactile transmission device.

Electronic devices equipped with a touch input unit such as a touch panel or a touch pad are generally widespread. The touch input unit is an interface that detects that the operator touches the operation input surface and generates an input signal. With a touch panel that has an operation input surface that overlaps the display screen, the generation of input signals can be visually recognized by changing the display on the screen, but the touch input unit has a reliable operation feeling like keyboard button operation. One of the drawbacks is that it cannot be obtained.

On the other hand, skin sensation feedback technology (haptic technology) that feeds back the input confirmation of the interface to the operator by vibration etc. has been studied in recent years, and the operator who touches the operation input surface also in the touch input part. It has been proposed to feed back the vibration to the fingers of the user. For example, in the prior art described in Patent Document 1 below, it is shown that a diaphragm (touch input portion) having a vibrating actuator is elastically fixed to a frame of an electronic device via an elastic damper.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2013-59756

According to the above-mentioned prior art, the provision of the elastic damper prevents the vibration of the diaphragm (touch input portion) from being suppressed. However, in this conventional technique, the direction in which the elastic damper is displaced by pushing the diaphragm with a finger or the like coincides with the direction in which the diaphragm vibrates, so that the operator cannot effectively detect the vibration of the tactile feedback. is there.

The present invention has been proposed to address such problems. That is, an object of the present invention is to enable an effective sense of vibration of tactile feedback in a tactile transmission device that provides tactile feedback by vibration to a touch input.

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention has the following configurations.
A touch input module with a touch operation surface on the surface,
A vibration actuator fixed to the touch input module, driven by touch input to the touch operation surface, and laterally vibrating along the touch operation surface.
It is provided with an elastic rubber material having an elastic thickness along the touch operation surface and supporting the side surface side of the touch input module to the housing of the electronic device .
The elastic rubber material is a tactile transmission device characterized in that the touch input module side is a high-resilience rubber and the housing side is a low-resilience rubber.

It is explanatory drawing which showed the electronic device provided with the tactile transmission device of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which showed the operation state of the tactile transmission device. It is explanatory drawing which showed the other embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which showed the structural example of the vibration actuator. It is explanatory drawing which showed the electronic device provided with the tactile transmission device which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals in different figures indicate parts having the same function, and duplicate description in each figure will be omitted as appropriate.

In FIG. 1, the tactile transmission device 1 includes a touch input module 2, a vibration actuator 10 fixed to the touch input module 2, and an elastic rubber material 3, and is externally attached to a housing 20 of an electronic device. There is.

The touch input module 2 has a touch operation surface 2A on its surface. The vibration actuator 10 is driven by a touch input to the touch operation surface 2A and performs lateral vibration along the touch operation surface. That is, in the illustrated example, the touch operation surface 2A is a flat surface in the XY directions, and the vibration direction of the vibration actuator 10 is set to reciprocate vibration (linear vibration) in the X direction or the Y direction. ..

The elastic rubber material 3 has an elastic thickness along the touch operation surface 2A, and the side surface side of the touch input module 2 is supported by the housing 20. In the illustrated example, the elastic rubber material 3 has an elastic thickness along the X direction or the Y direction, and the side surface of the touch input module 2 is supported by the side wall surface 21A of the recess 21 provided in the housing 20. ing.

In the illustrated example, the recess 21 of the housing 20 of the electronic device accommodates the touch input module 2, and is an elastic rubber material provided between the side wall surface 21A of the recess 21 and the side surface of the touch input module 2 as described above. Reference numeral 3 denotes a high-resilience rubber material, and a low-resilience rubber material 4 is provided between the back surface of the touch input module and the bottom surface 21B of the recess 21. As the high-resilience rubber material here, a high-density natural rubber or the like can be used, and as the low-resilience rubber material 4, a low-density sponge material or the like can be used.

According to such a tactile transmission device 1, as shown in FIG. 2, when the touch operation surface 2A is operated by a finger M or the like, the vibration actuator 10 is driven by the touch input to generate a lateral vibration f as shown in the drawing. To do. At this time, since the finger M receives the repulsive force P of the elastic rubber material 3, the lateral vibration f is easily transmitted to the finger M pressed against the touch operation surface 2A. Further, since the direction of the lateral vibration f of the vibration actuator 10 and the elastic thickness direction of the elastic rubber material 3 are the same, the lateral vibration f is amplified and transmitted by the elasticity of the elastic rubber material 3.

At this time, by operating the touch operation surface 2A with the finger M, the repulsive force P is applied to the finger M, and at the same time, the lateral vibration f in the direction intersecting the repulsive force P is applied to the touch operation surface 2A. As a result, the tactile sensation receptors called Meissner corpuscles existing near the skin surface of finger M receive a sensation similar to the displacement of the skin surface, and the tactile sensations called pacinian corpuscles existing in the subcutaneous tissue of finger M. The sensory receptors will experience a sensation similar to the sinking of a finger. When such a sensation is transmitted to the brain, the illusion that the touch operation surface 2A is partially subducted is caused in the brain, and a comfortable operation feeling such as a click feeling can be obtained. In particular, when the direction of the repulsive force P and the direction of the lateral vibration f intersect, the above-mentioned tactile sensory receptor of the finger M can sense the lateral vibration f with high sensitivity.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, the elastic rubber material 3 in the above-mentioned example has the touch input module 2 side as the high-resilience rubber 3A and the housing 20 side as the low-resilience rubber 3B. By doing so, the lateral vibration f of the vibrating actuator 10 is absorbed by the damping function of the low-resilience rubber 3B, so that the lateral vibration f of the vibrating actuator 10 is transmitted to the housing 20 side via the elastic rubber material 3. Can be suppressed. As the high-resilience rubber 3A here, a high-density natural rubber or the like can be used, and as the low-resilience rubber 3B, a low-density sponge material or the like can be used.

In the case of a portable electronic device that holds the housing 20 by hand, the lateral vibration f of the vibration actuator 10 is transmitted to the hand holding the housing 20 in order to surely evoke the sensation of the tactile sensation receptor described above. It is necessary not to. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the low-resilience rubber 3B is arranged on the housing 20 side of the elastic rubber material 3. By arranging the low-resilience rubber 3B on the housing side in this way, the tactile transmission device 1 can also be applied to a portable electronic device.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the vibration actuator. In the vibration actuator 10, the mover 50 is oscillatedly supported in a frame body 40 serving as a stator along a uniaxial direction (x direction in the drawing). The mover 50 includes a pair of weight portions 51 and a magnet portion 52 arranged between them, and a guide shaft 53 extending in the vibration direction is fixed to the weight portions 51. The magnet portion 52 includes magnet pieces 52A, 52B, 52C magnetized along the vibration direction and arranged so that the same poles face each other, and spacers 52D, 52E are provided between the magnet pieces 52A, 52B, 52C. Have been placed. The weight portion 51 and the magnet portion 52 are integrally connected by a connecting member 54 and a reinforcing member 55.

A coil 41 is fixed to the frame body 40 that serves as a stator. The coil 41 is wound around the vibration direction (x direction in the drawing), and the mover 50 is slidably arranged in the coil 41. In the illustrated example, a pair of coils 41 connected in series are arranged in opposite winding directions, and each coil 41 is arranged around the spacers 52D and 52E, respectively. Further, a bearing 42 that pivotally supports the guide shaft 53 of the mover 50 is attached to the frame body 40, and a plurality of elastic members 43 are provided between the mover 50 (weight portion 51) and the frame body 40. ing.

Such a vibration actuator 10 inputs a vibration generation signal (for example, an alternating current having a resonance frequency determined by the mass of the mover 50 and the elastic coefficient of the elastic member 43) to the coil 41 from the input terminal 40A provided on the frame body 40. As a result, the Lorentz force (driving force) along the uniaxial direction (x direction in the drawing) acts on the magnet portion 52 to generate linear vibration (lateral vibration) along the uniaxial direction.

FIG. 5 shows a mobile information terminal (for example, a smart phone) 100 as an electronic device including the tactile transmission device 1. The personal digital assistant 100 usually holds the housing 20 with one hand and operates the touch operation surface 2A of the touch input module 2 such as a touch panel with the fingers M of the other hand. At this time, as in the example shown in FIG. 3, by suppressing the lateral vibration of the vibration actuator 10 transmitted to the housing 20, the lateral vibration of the tactile feedback is effectively transmitted to the finger M, and the vibration of the tactile feedback is transmitted. It is possible to obtain a portable information terminal 100 that can be effectively sensed.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to these embodiments, and the design changes, etc. within the range not deviating from the gist of the present invention, etc. Even if there is, it is included in the present invention. Further, each of the above-described embodiments can be combined by diverting the technologies of each other as long as there is no particular contradiction or problem in the purpose and configuration thereof. The electronic device described above is not limited to a portable electronic device that holds the frame by hand, and may be a stationary electronic device.

1: Tactile transmission device, 2: Touch input module, 2A: Touch operation surface,
3: Elastic rubber material, 3A: High resilience rubber, 3B: Low resilience rubber,
4: Rubber material (low-resilience rubber material), 10: Vibration actuator, 20: Housing,
21: Concave, 100: Mobile information terminal

Claims (3)

A touch input module with a touch operation surface on the surface,
A vibration actuator fixed to the touch input module, driven by touch input to the touch operation surface, and laterally vibrating along the touch operation surface.
It is provided with an elastic rubber material having an elastic thickness along the touch operation surface and supporting the side surface side of the touch input module to the housing of the electronic device .
The elastic rubber material is a tactile transmission device characterized in that the touch input module side is a high-resilience rubber and the housing side is a low-resilience rubber. Housing of said electronic device, said with a recess for accommodating the touch input module, the elastic rubber member is provided between the side wall surface of the recess and the side surface of the touch input module, the rear surface of the touch input module The tactile transmission device according to claim 1, wherein a low-resilience rubber material is provided between the recess and the bottom surface. An electronic device including the tactile transmission device according to claim 1 or 2.

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