Sony patents touch surface that moves to create physical feedback
Sony describes a device with a flexible top layer that users can touch. When a user presses a specific spot, a mechanism underneath moves to that exact location to push the surface outward, creating a physical bump or shape.
In the filing’s own words
A haptic presentation apparatus includes a deformable flexible layer that has flexibility, the flexible layer including a front surface that is exposed to be touchable by a user; a specification layer that specifies a shape of the flexible layer, the specification layer including a front surface that faces a back surface of the flexible layer; and a haptic generation unit that faces a back surface of the specification layer, the haptic generation unit being moved to a position that corresponds to a touch portion of the flexible layer that is a portion touched by the user, the haptic generation unit deforming the touch portion of the flexible layer.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A haptic presentation apparatus, comprising: a deformable flexible layer that has flexibility, the flexible layer including a front surface that is exposed to be touchable by a user; a specification layer that specifies a shape of the flexible layer, the specification layer including a front surface that faces a back surface of the flexible layer; and a haptic generation unit that faces a back surface of the specification layer, the haptic generation unit being moved to a position that corresponds to a touch portion of the flexible layer that is a portion touched by the user, the haptic generation unit deforming the touch portion of the flexible layer.
Facts
- Company
- Sony (Sony Group Corporation)
- Official title
- HAPTIC PRESENTATION APPARATUS, HAPTIC PRESENTATION METHOD, AND VEHICLE
- Publication number
- US20260299693A1
- Application number
- 19477573
- Filed
- Apr 10, 2024
- Published
- Oct 1, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 13
Classified under
G06F 3/016 Physics & computingB60K 35/10 Operations & transportB60K 35/22 Operations & transportB60K 35/25 Operations & transportB60K 2360/126 Operations & transportB60K 2360/1438 Operations & transportMore from Sony in Wearables
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.