METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING FORCE FEEDBACK FOR A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

摘要

A human/computer interface device (14) which has a physical object (34), such as a joystick, controlling a graphical object, such as a cursor, within the graphical user interface GUI. A signal (24) is output from the host computer to the interface device to apply a force sensation to the physical object using one or more actuators (30). The force sensation assists the user to select a desired operating system function or physically informs the user of the graphical objects encountered by the cursor within the GUI. A microprocessor (26) local to the interface apparatus can be used to control forces on the physical object.