Integrated Piezo Haptic Driver for Mobile Consumer and Industrial Designs

Texas Instruments Introduces DRV8662, Integrated Piezo Haptic Driver for Mobile Consumer and Industrial Designs

By pur, Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Category: Industrial, Mobile Devices

Texas Instruments introduced the most highly integrated piezo haptic driver for mobile consumer and industrial designs. The DRV8662 features an integrated 105-V boost converter, power diode, and 50-V to 200-V peak-to-peak (Vpp) fully-differential amplifier, resulting in a solution size that is 50 percent smaller than leading competitors. The DRV8662 also lowers total solution cost by 40 percent compared to competing solutions, thanks to an efficient, transformer-less design. With the capability to drive a wide range of piezo actuator voltages and fast start-up time, the DRV8662 benefits designers creating fast, high-definition haptic designs.

Key features and benefits

• Piezo modules enable fast start-up time (1.5 milliseconds), thin form-factor and high bandwidth, resulting in the production of haptic effects not possible with intertial-based actuators.
• Drives piezo actuator capacitances from 50 to 680 nanofarad (nF) at 300 Hz, enabling a wide variety of high-resolution haptic effects, including feedback localized to specific areas of the device, as well as vibrations and pulses that change in frequency based on how the user is interacting with the device.
• Transformer-less design and wide supply range of 3.0 to 5.5-V with direct battery connection reduces solution size and cost.
• Thermal overload protection prevents damage when the device is overdriven.

The DRV8662 is available now in a 4-mm x 4-mm x 0.9-mm QFN package, priced at $1.75 in quantities of 1,000.

An evaluation module is available for the DRV8662, priced at $100, and includes a fully-programmable MSP430G2553, as well as analog and digital interfaces for complete standalone and in-system evaluation. Out of the box, the MSP430 is programmed with sample haptic waveforms for immediate evaluation.

A simulation model for the DRV8662 is also available in TINA-TI 9.1, a SPICE-based analog simulation program. Download TINA-TI 9.1 at www.ti.com/tina-ti-download-pr.

The DRV8662 can be used with TI’s OMAP™ family of processors in touch screen-enabled devices, such as handsets. The processing power of the OMAP devices, coupled with the high-definition haptic effects enabled by the DRV8662, significantly improve the user experience.

DRV8662 - Integrated Piezo Haptic Driver for Mobile Consumer and Industrial Designs (Photo from TI Website)

Patent Litigation - as a busness model, Defensive Patent Aggregation Service

Reduce Patent Litigation Costs > Company > Solution > Defensive Patent Aggregation Service

A key component of RPX’s market-based solution to the patent litigation problem is our defensive patent aggregation service. Pioneered by RPX, defensive patent aggregation is analogous to insurance, but where classic insurance lowers a company's costs when accidents happen, this service is designed to reduce the likelihood of accidents happening at all.

We identify and purchase patent assets of high value, relevance and risk that could be used offensively against members of our client network. Depending on the situation, we may acquire assets from a third party or directly from an NPE. When necessary and possible, we will purchase patent rights directly out of an active litigation. We will never use our patents offensively.

Our clients receive a license to all patents and associated rights aggregated in the portfolio. Over time, our clients receive perpetual license not only to the patents held when they became members or purchased after they joined, but also to any patents sold during their membership. Patents in the portfolio are also available for members to use in a counterclaim against any non-member who initiates litigation.

Subscription fees range from $60,000 to $6.6 million and are rate-card-based using a client’s operating income. Early-joining members lock in a lower rate card, as our rate card will increase slightly each year to account for the growing value of our portfolio. Companies that join RPX’s client network later receive the same benefits, but pay the then-current rates.

Become a Member

> join

Patent litigation used to be a form of legal redress. Today it is a business model. A multi-billion dollar industry has emerged based on litigating intellectual property rights for financial gain. Patents are the assets in this new business model. And operating companies are the revenue source.

As a provider of patent risk solutions, RPX helps corporations manage their exposure to patent litigation. We have introduced efficiency to the patent market by providing a rational alternative to traditional litigation strategy for our clients, offering defensive buying, acquisition syndication, patent intelligence, and advisory services.

Our pioneering approach combines principal capital, deep patent expertise, and client contributions to generate enhanced patent buying power to manage patent risks and ongoing costs. By acquiring potential problem patents, we significantly reduce patent assertions directed at our client network. We will never assert or litigate the patents in our portfolio.

• Company
• Clients
• Patent Sellers

• Market
  • NPE Impact High Patent Defense Cost Uneven Playing Field
• Solution
  • RPX Approach Defensive Patent Aggregation Service Syndicated Acquisitions
    Growing Portfolio FAQs
• Membership
  • Client Relations Annual Rate Calculator
• Team
  • Executive Management Acquisitions Client Relations Finance
    Corporate Development Legal Client Development Marketing
    Structured Acquisitions Technology
• News and Events
  • RPX in the News News Releases Events Fast Facts
• Investor Relations
• Blog
• About RPX
  • Offices Advisory Board Fast Facts Career Opportunities
    Request Information Contact RPX

About Novint - corporate website

About Novint

Novint Technologies, Inc. (NVNT) is the pioneer of 3D touch for consumer computing. Novint is developing a new category of products that add high-fidelity interactive three-dimensional touch to computing, beginning with our introduction of the award-winning Novint Falcon and continuing with our recent addition of the Novint XIO. The Novint Falcon is a first-of-a-kind game controller that lets you experience realistic 3D touch and force feedback when playing touch-enabled games. The Novint Xio is an exoskeleton that will revolutionize the gaming industry by adding haptic feedback to motion controls.

Our sense of touch connects us to the world around us and is an integral part of how we experience things, both physically and emotionally. Games have incorporated increasingly sophisticated graphics and sound design, but none have added realistic touch. In the past, the expense of 3D touch (haptic) hardware made the technology cost-prohibitive, but the Novint Falcon and the Novint Xio, which are, in essence, small robots, are designed to be affordable consumer devices. The Falcon and the Xio allow players to feel weight, shape, texture, dimension, dynamics and force feedback, performing comparably to commercial devices that cost thousands of dollars. Using these devices, players feel a character’s actions instead of controlling a game through mouse clicks or meters. Players feel the weight of a basketball as they shoot it towards a hoop – the momentum and impact as they swing a virtual golf club and strike a ball – the recoil of a weapon – or the characteristics of virtual objects and environments, making gameplay more natural and realistic.

Novint is uniquely qualified to bring this revolutionary technology to market. As a leading developer of commercial touch applications, Novint has worked with clients including Lockheed Martin, Chrysler, Chevron, Mobil, Aramco, and Harvard University. Novint has developed the only low-cost (sub $1000) high-fidelity hardware solution available for consumer or commercial haptic applications.

iPhone Vibrate Alert TWEAK When Call Connects - iOS Vlog 317 - YouTube

iPhone Vibrate Alert TWEAK When Call Connects - iOS Vlog 317 - YouTube

Uploaded by iKryptic on Mar 9, 2011

Phone Buzzer is a simple tweak that will vibrate your iPhone when your call connects. So when you are calling a person and the phone suddenly stops ringing, you will know if you connected to the person or not. As we all know iPhones drop calls all the time, this lets us know that the person/voicemail has picked up and not dropped the call. You normally have to look at your screen to see if it connected, but this will let you feel it on your face =] Check out Phone Buzzer in Cydia for FREE.

iOS SDK Snippet: iPhone Vibration

• Tutorials\
• iOS SDK

iOS SDK Snippet: iPhone Vibration

Mark Hammonds on Sep 15th 2010 with 5 comments

Tutorial Details

• Technology: iOS SDK
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Completion Time: 15 Minutes

With this iOS SDK code snippet, you will learn how to cause the iPhone to vibrate with the AudioToolbox framework and a single line of code. You will also learn additional details about iPhone vibration not explained in the code snippet itself, such as how to generate multiple vibrations at once.

The source code referenced in this screencast was written by KevinBomberry and posted to Snipplr, an Envato site dedicated to saving and sharing code.

GO TO LINK TO VIEW VIDEO: iOS SDK Snippet: iPhone Vibration

iPhone OS - Vibration - Simple Version

//  NOTE: You need to import the AudioToolbox for access 

to the vibrate
#import 

//  The one-liner:
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound (kSystemSoundID_Vibrate);

//  The function:
- (void)vibrate {
AudioServicesPlaySystemSound (kSystemSoundID_Vibrate);
}

//  The call from within another method in the same class:
- (void)myMethod {
[self vibrate];
}

View this snippet on Snipplr

iPhone Vibration Notes

• Vibration will not work on the iPodTouch or the iPad.
• Calling this function on unsupported devices will do nothing and will not generate a run-time error.
• The duration of each vibration is fixed to approximately 2 seconds in length and cannot be altered.

Tactile Pixels Will Make It Easy To Read Braille On Touchscreens

touchscreens

By Kwame Opam Jul 9, 2011 7:00 PM

17,237 33

It's a familiar complaint. Even as companies like Apple try to tie the computer interface back to the natural world, touchscreens are still woefully flat. But recent developments, including Senseg's new E-sense technology, could bring real-world touch into everyday computing.
Obviously, this is nothing new. Research into programmable friction has already yielded impressive results, especially in the realm of stickiness. But this concept accomplishes the same goal by using "tixels" or tactile pixels to create an electrical field you can feel. Your skin responds by feeling whatever the interface wants it to feel: Buttons, perhaps, or even the fur of a virtual pet.
The project sounds really promising, and Senseg already has Toshiba backing them. Imagine video chat aided by tactile pixels. Being able to gentle touch the face of a newborn baby. Or the hand of a distant lover. The possibilities are as endless as ever. [The Next Web via Geekosystem, Image Credit: Italianestro/Shutterstock]

Related Stories

• The World's Largest Multitouch LCD Is 82-Inches of Glass Just Waiting to Be Smudged

• Apple Now Owns the Patent On Capacitive Touchscreens [Updated]

• Here Are a Bunch of Ways to Make Touchscreen Gaming About More Than Screen

International Society for Haptics-What is Haptics?

What is "Haptics"?

By Gabriel Robles-De-La-Torre, PhD

In experimental psychology and physiology, the word haptic refers to the ability to experience the environment through active exploration, typically with our hands, as when palpating an object to gauge its shape and material properties. This is commonly called active or haptic touch (see Further Reading).

Increasingly, the words haptic and haptics are used to refer to all touch and touch-related capabilities, including the ability to sense the position and movement of one's limbs (commonly called kinesthesia or proprioception, see Further Reading). You can easily experience these capabilities by closing you eyes and noticing how you can determine the position of your hands, arms and legs without looking at them.

More generally, Haptics is commonly used today to refer to the science of touch in real and virtual environments. This would include not only the study of touch capabilities in different organisms, including humans, but also the development of engineering systems to create haptic virtual environments. The latter subfield is commonly known as computer haptics. This technology does for touch what computer graphics does for vision. You can see an animation explaining the basics of computer haptics here.

Next topic: Why is Haptics important?

Further reading

Robles-De-La-Torre G. "The Importance of the Sense of Touch in Virtual and Real Environments". IEEE Multimedia 13(3), Special issue on Haptic User Interfaces for Multimedia Systems, pp. 24-30. (2006).

Copyright 2006 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

Robles-De-La-Torre G. "Virtual Reality: Touch / Haptics". In Goldstein B (Ed.), "SAGE Encyclopedia of Perception". Sage Publications,Thousand Oaks, CA (2009).

Hayward V, Astley OR, Cruz-Hernandez M, Grant D, Robles-De-La-Torre G. "Haptic Interfaces and Devices". Sensor Review 24(1), pp. 16-29 (2004).

Robles-De-La-Torre G. "Principles of Haptic Perception in Virtual Environments". In Grunwald M (Ed.), "Human Haptic Perception", Birkhäuser Verlag (2008). Legal notice

Grunwald M (Ed.), "Human Haptic Perception", Birkhäuser Verlag (2008).

Video - "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen - Jeff Han on TED Talks

www.paikia.com

Jeff Han is a research scientist for NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32)

Touchpad Sensitivity Appauling: Apple Support Communities

Touchpad Sensitivity Appauling: Apple Support Communities

Jul 28, 2011 2:45 PM

Hi All,

Brand new MacBook Air, 13" i5, 256 SSD, 4GB (Samsung thankfully!), running Lion.

The sensitivity of the built in multi-touch pad seems to be very sporadic. Sometimes the slightest touch on the pad will trigger a click, which is what I am used to on my old MacBook Pro and other times, within a few seconds of the ultra sensitive instance, I can sit there tap the pad 6 or so times before the click is actually acknowledged.

This is very frustrating especially when working away from a desk/mouse/keyboard. In addition to the click feedback, I have also noticed that when tracking the cursor across the screen, it pointer will occasional just stop, then it will catch up again a few seconds later. It is almost like the touch-pad is loosing connection or the software for the touch-pad is have delays processing my input.

I have tried changing the universal settings to slow for double click, as a few other folks have suggested, but it does not seem to make any difference.

This coupled with the fact I've 8 Kernel panics in the past 24 hours, I'm starting to get a little irritated,

Has anyone had any similar experiences with their new Airs running Lion and if so, any tips on what might be going on or how I might be able to fix the issue?

Thanks in advance,

Mitch