Microfluidics Three-Dimensional Touch Screen Display

摘要

A microfluidic transducer is overlaid on a two-dimensional display and controlled in accordance with metadata corresponding to a displayed image to cause raising of a surface of the microfluidic transducer to represent objects depicted in the image and at least the relative distance of such objects from a viewing point of the image to form a touch screen allowing the image to be navigated and manipulated in the form of a tactile display, particularly for persons having visual impairment. The distance information is preferably captured during initial capture of the image and stored as metadata but can also be determined by image analysis. Object analysis is also provided for objects in the image for identification that can be conveyed by touch or audibly and the relative hardness of softness, texture and color of objects is conveyed by compliance, motion and/or temperature of the surface of the microfluidics transducer.

主权项

1. A touch screen comprising
an image file containing metadata and data representing a visually perceptible image, an image analyzer for analyzing said data and metadata representing said visually perceptible image, said image analyzer including logic for recognizing and classifying objects represented and arranged in said image by identified type and mapping tactile attributes to recognized objects and storing results of said recognizing and classifying of objects as metadata, and a microfluidics transducer for producing selectively raised areas of a surface to represent said tactile attributes of said recognized objects and the arrangement of said objects in said image.