Published Inventions
Here are some published patent documents in which I am named as an inventor. Most of these were from my time at Volkswagen. You can see the full text of each of them (and most recent patent documents from around the world) for free at-
Haptic Touch Panels
I spent several years working with touch panels (either touch screens or touch pads) with touch feedback. Many claims were made from this work.
US2005122317, EP1517224
This
describes an early version of a haptic touch screen in which the touch screen
moves in a direction perpendicular to the surface, actuated by voice coils.
Claims are made about certain haptic waveforms and frequency ranges.
US2005225539, JP2005222551
These describe a haptic touch screen with improved performance and manufacturability. Leveraging the findings of Hayward and Cruz-Fernandez who found that the fingertip cannot discern the difference between a side to side vibration and and in and out vibration, this design moves left-right in the plane of the touch panel. Motion from a cheap, mass produced DC rotary motor is transformed into linear motion by a specially designed injection molded flexure. The motion of the panel is guided by U-shaped springs, which are relatively compliant in the desired axis of motion and relatively stiff in other axes.
US2006146036, WO2006074712
These describe a mode of touch panel interaction where information about the
relative force of the finger is available. In particular, a technique was
described in which a touch screen could discern at least two distinct force
levels (such as with Cybertouch's DualForce technology) and use this information
to provide a warning function which can be overridden with a harder press.
US2006146037, DE102005038161
These describe ways to overcome the resolution limits of fingertip activated
touch panels in order to represent small scale texture. The essence of the
technique is to observe the velocity of the finger motion, and use this to
create a more accurate estimate of the position of a moving finger. A
Kalman Filter is described to act as an effective mathematical means to arrive
at this position estimate.
US2006146039, EP1677180
These describe a mode of touch panel interaction whereby the brief
press of a second finger on a touch panel can be used to emulate right
mouse click functionality. Specifically, such a press on a
resistive touch screen would be apparent as a rapid motion from the
first finger position to the average of the two finger positions and
back again. Such functionality is particularly useful for
implementing context sensitive help.
Selective Noise Cancellation Headset
DE102004039066
This
describes a special variation on a noise cancelling headset in which a
sound from a specific known audio source is cancelled, while other
ambient sounds are not affected. This is useful so that a vehicle
passenger may listen to an audio program on the headset while the driver
listens to a different audio program on the cabin speakers. This
effect is accomplished by using an adaptive filter to identify the path
from the audio source to be cancelled to the error measurement
microphones in the headset.
Haptic Shifter
DE102004061100
This
describes a force feedback gear shift lever for a continuously variable
transmission. Several modes of operation were described, including
one where the shifter by default moves continuously to a gear ratio
based on a predetermined algorithm, but where the driver can intercede
at any time to tug the gear ratio in a desired direction.