Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Daniela Fertl

Fritjof Kaiser

Florian Murr

Ines Steinke

Anke Richter

Johanna Kollmann

Astrid Tarkus

An appliance has an operating unit with an actuating element for triggering a pre-determined action. The actuating element is mechanically actuatable by force of a user. The actuating element is preferably a mechanically actuatable switch and/or key element. A touch-sensitive sensor is built into the actuating element, for detecting skin contact occurring as a result of the exertion of force for the mechanical actuation of the actuating element. The appliance is also embodied in such a way that, as a requirement for triggering the pre-determined actions, it is checked whether the actuating element is actuated and skin contact is detected by the touch-sensitive sensor. The appliance prevents defective actuations by associating touch-sensitive sensor technology with the mechanically actuatable actuating element. This ensures that mechanical actuation without skin contact does trigger the pre-determined action.

Appliance comprising an operating unit

A device with a graphical user interface, via which the functions of the device are controlled has functions divided into categories which are sub-divided into subcategories. The categories are represented by primary regions that are schematically arranged on the user interface. The primary regions contain elements, each of which represents a sub-category of the category of the respective primary region. In addition, only one primary region is expanded by the display of a secondary region after an element has been selected. The secondary region contains control elements for at least one function that is assigned to the sub-category representing the selected element. The at least one function is controlled by the control elements.

Method for controlling a device

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Germany

Daniela Fertl