JPH0777944A - Vibrating type tactile display - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a vibrating type tactile display which changes a contact sense to the plane to be contacted by vibrating and driving microcontactors arranged in the form of a plane with an arbitrary timewise and spacewise pattern, thereby synthesizing and displaying a contact sense toward various material bodys including virtual objects. CONSTITUTION:Arrangement in the form of a plane is possible by having the contactors 1 used in common with wires to act also as transmitters of vibration and extending the wires up to the vibrators 4. Further, the arranging planes having an arbitrary area are possible to constitute when units, each of which has the contactors 1 and vibrators 4 bundled in several pieces in the reverse direction, are arranged. Driving is achieved with the contactors 1, piezoelectronic elements for generating the vibration and mechanisms for expanding the displacement thereof. In addition, the timewise and spacewise pattern is controlled by an electronic circuit including a calculator. Further, the structure is simplified when the contactors 1 themselves are constituted of the piezoelectronic elements and integrally molded with the vibrators 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for constructing a tactile display that produces a feeling of touching an arbitrary object by vibrating a surface directly or indirectly contacted by human skin with a minute unit. Is. The presentation of stimuli to the tactile sense and the transmission of sensory information by it are fundamental events, so the fields of application are extremely wide. For example, if you use a tactile display, you can communicate information from extreme environments (space, nuclear power, extremely small areas, inside of living organisms, other hazards, invasive environments) and from remote locations, computer-aided evaluation support at the time of product design, product explanation (virtual reality). Display by feeling), welfare for persons with disabilities, amusement, etc. are possible.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, display devices intended to display various fine states on the surface have not been attempted because it is difficult to increase the areal density. There is a braille display device in a similar device, but this is basically made for the purpose of transmitting only symbolic information, and the display density is very rough. Also, the temporal bandwidth is on the order of a few seconds because it corresponds to the reading time of the symbol characters. With this,
It is not possible to create the feeling of touching various objects.
Artificial reality technology in recent years has provided a means to generate virtual reality by presenting artificial stimuli to the human visual and auditory sense organs. However, other than the present device, there is no device that presents the microscopic state of the surface to the tactile sense, including not only the ruggedness but also the temporal change in the high band.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention artificially provides arbitrary tactile sensation information (including symbol information) by vibrating human skin somatosensory among human somatosensory sensations with high density. It is a composition. Specifically, the challenges are to arrange minute contacts in high density, to obtain sufficient stimulation strength (contact displacement / strength), and to obtain arbitrary temporal and spatial vibration patterns. In the past, when trying to obtain the stimulus intensity, the contactor became large and spatial density was not obtained, and when the density was increased, sufficient stimulus intensity (contactor displacement / strength) could not be obtained.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A minute contactor must have not only a high spatial density in the plane but also sufficient vibrational displacement and generated force of itself. The contact can be miniaturized by conventional high-precision cutting, grinding, and electrical discharge machining, but physicochemical micromachining (microphotofabrication using etching) is effective. For example, by using anisotropic etching of silicon, photolithography material by UV exposure, LIGA process using X-ray exposure, etc., it is possible to manufacture ultra-high-density contacts with sufficient strength. (The contact pitch can be manufactured by these processes up to a few microns) The contact itself is desirable because it has a simple structure. For example, if the contactor is a wire-shaped expandable element (piezoelectric element)
The surface can be formed by the end points if they are bundled together. When the oscillator that drives the contactor is configured separately, the contactor and oscillator are connected by a transmitter (for example, a wire). in this case,
It is necessary to constrain the wire movement direction on the axis so that the vibration is not damped. The oscillator needs to have a band up to about 400 Hz so as to include the frequency range where the sensitivity of the vibration stimulus is maximum in the human skin sensation. If a piezoelectric element is used, this requirement can be sufficiently satisfied. When using a commercially available piezoelectric element, the generated force is extremely large (hundreds of N), but its displacement is small (tens of microns), so
It is necessary to increase the displacement. A plate-shaped displacement magnifying mechanism that constitutes a lever can be used for the portion that magnifies the displacement. To generate an arbitrary time-spatial pattern, a drive controller consisting of an electronic logic circuit or a computer is used.

[0005]

[Operation] When you touch the surface of this vibrating tactile display,
Vibration of the contactor is transmitted to the skin and various contact sensations are generated.
Furthermore, by measuring the movement of the skin of the contact area, for example, the fingertip, and controlling the vibration pattern dynamically by interlocking with it, it is possible to obtain the feel when various objects are actively touched. In this case, when the target is presented to the visual sense at the same time (by a video display), the sense of contact with the target is significantly increased.

[0006]

【Example】

[Embodiment 1] In the case shown in FIG. 1, the contactor (1) is also a wire that is a vibration transmitter, and the wire is vibrated by a vibrator (4). The tip of the wire, which is a contactor, is exposed through the hole formed in the contactor support frame (2). Also,
The contacts are arranged in a plane at equal intervals. 2 is shown in FIG.
This shows one row of contacts in the case of. The structure shown in Fig. 1 can be created by stacking this one row vertically and changing the contact length for each row. The oscillator (4) is connected to each other with fixing screws and fixed relatively to the contact support frame. 3 and 4 show another method for arranging the contactor (1) and the vibrator (4). In the embodiment of FIG. 1, when the number of contacts is extended in the upper right direction, the height of the display in the axial direction of the contacts (1), that is, the vertical direction, is proportional to the height of the vibrator (4) and the number thereof. And grow bigger. The plan view of FIG. 3 and the front view of FIG. 4 show an arrangement method for preventing this. This represents one unit in which the contactor (1) and the oscillator (4) are set in opposite directions. The height of this unit is finite, as determined by the number of elements included. This unit in the plane of the plan view 3,
If arranged two-dimensionally, an array of infinite number of contacts can be obtained. However, in this case, the contacts are staggered for each unit. However, if the contacts are small enough, the effect is virtually the same as the equidistant placement. First of oscillator (4)
An example of is shown in FIG. In this case, displacement is generated by the piezoelectric element (6) and it is magnified by the displacement magnifying mechanism (5). In this case, the displacement magnifying mechanism (5) is a lever with a simple support beam. A second embodiment of the oscillator (4) is shown in FIG. In this case, the displacement of the piezoelectric element (6) is magnified by a two-step lever with a notch structure. Third of oscillator (4)
An example of is shown in FIG. In this case as well, the displacement of the piezoelectric element (6) is expanded by a two-step lever with a notch structure. In this arrangement, the height of the displacement magnifying mechanism (the length of the contactor (1) in the axial direction) can be made shorter than in the case of FIG. 6, and the piezoelectric element (6) is arranged on the left side of the displacement magnifying mechanism. There is an advantage that there are less restrictions on the position when placing. Example 2 The case shown in FIG. 8 is an example in which the contactor (1) is also a vibrator. In this case, for example, the vibrator is made of a piezoelectric element and is made a component that expands and contracts in the axial direction. The contactor (1) has a contactor support frame (2) at the upper end.
The contact part is exposed from the mesh. The lower end is fixed to the housing structure connected to the contactor support frame (2).
A power supply line is drawn from the contactor and a controlled drive voltage is applied to this. In each of the above embodiments, the contact surface of each contact is not limited to a rectangular cross section or a circular cross section. Furthermore, the surface on which the contacts are lined up is not limited to a flat surface, but generally a curved surface. Also, its curvature can be made variable. In that case, a normal slide displacement mechanism can be used because it is not a vibration displacement. For example, the support frame will slide for each contact. Moreover, when it is attached to a fingertip, it is effective to detect the absolute coordinate position with a space sensor and reflect the conditions when touching various objects on the tactile display.

[0007]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention has the above-described structure. When using the present invention, the contactor (1) is brought into direct or indirect contact with the skin, and a temporal and spatial vibration pattern according to the object to be displayed. Is generated and the vibration stimulus is transmitted to the skin. This makes it possible to perceive the touch when touching the object, the texture of the surface, or the symbol information that you want to convey. Furthermore, if the presentation pattern is controlled according to the state of the temporal and spatial motion of the contacted skin and displayed in conjunction with visual image presentation, a contact sensation that is extremely close to reality can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the present invention. A partial cross section is shown. In this case, the whole is a simple sequence of these.

FIG. 2 is an outline drawing of the one-row portion of the contact (1) of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing another method of arranging the contactor (1) and the vibrator (3) of the present invention. actually,
Repeat this unit in a plane.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing another method of arranging the contactor (1) and the vibrator (3) of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a detailed plan view of the contactor (1) and the vibrator (3) of the present invention. It is a first embodiment of the displacement magnifying mechanism (6).

FIG. 6 is a detailed plan view of the contactor (1) and the vibrator (3) of the present invention. It is a second embodiment of the displacement magnifying mechanism (6).

FIG. 7 is a detailed plan view of the contactor (1) and the vibrator (3) of the present invention. It is a third embodiment of the displacement magnifying mechanism (6).

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the present invention. This is a partially cutaway drawing. It is drawn enlarged for clarity. In this case, the contactor (1) also serves as a vibrator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Contact Element 2 Contact Element Support Frame 3 Transmitter 4 Transducer 5 Displacement Enlarging Mechanism 6 Piezoelectric Element 7 Power Supply Line 8 Drive Control Section

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Nei Ikei 6-6-3 Ochiai, Tama-shi, Tokyo 503 (72) Inventor Akihisa Ikeno 3-36-2 Toyota, Hino-shi, Tokyo Corp Nishitoyo田 103 (72) Inventor Shuichi Fukuda 3-29-5 Kichijoji Higashicho, Musashino City, Tokyo

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A vibrating tactile display in which the sense of contact with a surface is changed by vibrating minute contact elements arranged in a plane with an arbitrary temporal and spatial pattern. 2. The vibrating tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the contact also serves as a wire that is a vibration transmitter, and the wire is extended to the vibrator. 3. The vibrating tactile display according to claim 1, wherein the contactor is manufactured separately from the transmitter and is joined to the vibration transmitter. 4. A vibrator for vibrating a contactor is composed of a piezoelectric element and a mechanism for magnifying its displacement.
Vibrating tactile display.