Apple Patent | Wearable electronic device including audio output transducer and haptic actuator driving and related methods
Publication Number: 10198920
Publication Date: 2019-02-05
Applicants: Apple
Abstract
A wearable electronic device may include a wearable band and audio output transducers carried by the wearable band. The wearable electronic device may also include respective haptic actuators carried by the wearable band and adjacent respective ones of the audio output transducers. A drive circuit may be configured to concurrently drive the audio output transducers with respective first drive signals, and drive the haptic actuators with respective second drive signals different than the first drive signals.
Background
Haptic technology is becoming a more popular way of conveying information to a user. Haptic technology, which may simply be referred to as haptics, is a tactile feedback based technology that stimulates a user’s sense of touch by imparting relative amounts of force to the user.
A haptic device or haptic actuator is an example of a device that provides the tactile feedback to the user. In particular, the haptic device or actuator may apply relative amounts of force to a user through actuation of a mass that is part of the haptic device. Through various forms of tactile feedback, for example, generated relatively long and short bursts of force or vibrations, information may be conveyed to the user.
Summary
A wearable electronic device may include a wearable band and a plurality of audio output transducers carried by the wearable band. The wearable electronic device may also include a plurality of respective haptic actuators carried by the wearable band and adjacent respective ones of the plurality of audio output transducers and a drive circuit configured to concurrently drive the plurality of audio output transducers with respective first drive signals, and drive the plurality of haptic actuators with respective second drive signals different than the first drive signals.
The first and second drive signals may be based upon a same audio input signal, for example. The first drive signals may be based upon an audio input signal, and wherein the second drive signals are synthesized based upon the audio input signal. The first and second drive signals may be phase delayed, for example.
The wearable band may include a headband. The wearable band may include a wristband, for example.
The drive circuit may include a plurality of audio inputs, a plurality of haptic actuator outputs coupled to respective haptic actuators, and a plurality of respective filters coupled between respective ones of audio inputs and haptic actuator outputs. The drive circuit may include a plurality of respective haptic actuator gain stages coupled between respective ones of audio inputs and haptic actuator outputs. The drive circuit may include a plurality of audio outputs coupled to respective audio output transducers, and a plurality of respective audio gain stages coupled between respective ones of audio inputs and audio outputs, for example.
The wearable electronic device may further include a plurality of circuit substrates carried by the wearable band, and each circuit substrate may carry a respective audio output transducer and haptic actuator pair, for example.
A method aspect is directed to a method of providing a haptic effect to a user of a wearable electronic device that includes a wearable band, a plurality of audio output transducers carried by the wearable band, and a plurality of respective haptic actuators carried by the wearable band and adjacent respective ones of the plurality of audio output transducers. The method may include concurrently driving the plurality of audio output transducers with respective first drive signals, and driving the plurality of haptic actuators with respective second drive signals different than the first drive signals.
