Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : December 09, 2021 - December 10, 2021
Recently, touch screens and physical buttons that can be operated with small amount of force are used to operate information devices. Some of them provide feedback on completing their operation through somatic sensation. An example of that is a button that has a click sensation induced by stiffness change. However, the quantitative evaluation of the relationship between pushing sensation and perception of the operation through buttons is still insufficient. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the relationship between each element of a button and recognition through somatic sensation. In this article, an experimental apparatus for the quantitative evaluation and its control method are reported. The apparatus consists of a voice coil motor as an actuator, leaf springs that limits the movement direction to the vertical direction, a displacement sensor, a force sensor and a key top. The vertical displacement of the key top can be controlled. A control method of reproducing nonlinear button-push profile including basic factor of pushing sensation is shown. It is experimentally confirmed that the target button-push profile can be reproduced when the pushing force is quasi-static.
