Design and development of next generation piezoelectric haptic user interface demonstrator

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Date

2014-03-24

Department

Major/Subject

Machine Design

Mcode

K3001

Degree programme

Master’s Programme in Mechanical Engineering

Language

en

Pages

72 + 14

Series

Abstract

A piezoelectric haptic user interface (UI) demonstrator is a device that shows the capabilities of piezoelectric elements for generating vibration feedback to a user through an interface having button-less keys. The existing piezoelectric haptic UI demonstrates piezoelectric vibrational feedback to some extent but is limited due to drawbacks, such as low strength of the haptic feedback, the absence of visual feedback in the form of back-lighting, limited number of keys that can be controlled by a single microprocessor, low modularity of the design, difficulty in prototype testing, and high risk of errors in the assembly. The main purpose of this thesis is to design and develop an improved user interface demonstrator which increases the visibility of numerous types of sensational feedback produced by piezoelectric technology, and show the advantages that are only possible with this technology. The existing piezoelectric haptic UI demonstrator of Aito Interactive Oy was developed further for this thesis, in addition to a brief review of some different methods for generating haptic feedback in a user interface. The advantage of this haptic feedback over capacitive and other similar types of feedback is highlighted. The new prototype is tested to meet customer requirements in terms of functionality, durability, environmental temperature, and moisture effects. This next generation haptic UI demonstrator fulfills all the important requirements lacking in the current generation. However, the demonstrator designed in this thesis will further be improved in the coming years to meet the ever-changing market needs of user interfaces and stay ahead of the competition.

Description

Supervisor

Ekman, Kalevi

Thesis advisor

Toropainen, Jari

Keywords

haptic, UI, user interface, piezo, piezoelectric, feedback, back-lighting, light guide, prototype, concept

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Citation