Dell Products Inc.

Priyank Gajiwala

Michiel Knoppert

Thomas Marcus Hinskens

Frank Van Valkenhoef

Andrew Thomas Sultenfuss

Anthony J Sanchez

Jason Scott Morrison

Laurent Andrew Regimbal

Brandon Joel Brocklesby

David J Hernandez

Robert Duane Hrehor

James Henry Hallar

Timothy M Radloff

Robert D Hrehor, Jr

Samuel Mark Broadbent

Brian J Yates

Deeder M Aurongzeb

Travis Christian North

Paul J Doczy

Brian Hargrove Leonard

Richard Christopher Thompson

Mark Andrew Schwager

Christopher A Torres

Nicholas D Abbatiello

Duck Soo Choi

Nicholas G DiLoreto

Benny J Bologna

Jung-Hwan Hong

Wu Chin-Chung

Joseph McDonald

Charles Dennis Hughes

Trevor R Todd

A touchpad and palm rest base chassis assembly for an information handling system may comprise a base chassis for enclosing the information handling system including a keyboard opening, and a plurality of palm rest support surfaces, and a composite substrate of woven glass fiber impregnated with polycarbonate material forming a touchpad surface, through which haptic feedback may be provided and touch may be sensed by capacitive sensors including a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) operatively connected to the composite substrate having a light emitting diode (LED) disposed within an etched opening on the underside of the composite substrate formed to guide LED light into the light transmissive composite substrate of the touchpad surface to illuminate an icon opening within an inked surface of the composite substrate to negate need of a separate light guide layer, and the touchpad and palm rest base chassis assembly affixed to the base chassis.

System and method of manufacturing a haptic touchpad and palm rest assembly with light-diffusing composite substrate of woven glass fiber impregnated with polycarbonate

A plural-panel touchpad and palm rest base chassis assembly for an information handling system may comprise a base chassis having an upper portion including a keyboard opening, a touchpad opening for insertion of a touchpad assembly having a touchpad surface panel comprising polycarbonate impregnated thermoplastic fiberglass, and palm rest support surfaces supporting palm rest surface panels. The touchpad surface panel and the palm rest surface panels may have front edges and side edges defining a front and side boundary of the base chassis respectively and also defining the keyboard opening. A lightguide layer may be joined to the touchpad surface panel and to a touchpad printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) to illuminate touch buttons. The touchpad assembly is mechanically and operatively coupled to the base chassis upper portion via top-mounted fasteners disposed through a support bracket to palm rest support surfaces and concealed by the palm rest surface panels.

System and method of manufacturing a three- panel thermoplastic fiberglass composite haptic touchpad and palm rest assembly for an information handling system

Disclosed herein are single surface top covers for portable information handling systems, and that employ a substrate of thermoplastic fiberglass composite which is impregnated with polycarbonate material. The thermoplastic fiberglass composite material may be recyclable, and the thermoplastic fiberglass composite material may be impregnated with recycled polycarbonate material. A selective UV molding process may be employed to create multiple different finishes on the same upper surface of a single surface top cover by applying a nano coat of a textured UV light curable resin on at least a portion of the upper surface of a single surface top cover.

Single surface top covers for information handling systems

A haptic touchpad may include a seamless layer of glass; a touchpad assembly, including: a capacitive touch printed circuit board (PCB) operatively coupled to a bottom side of the seamless layer of glass via a first adhesive; a contact foil operatively coupled to the bottom surface of the capacitive touch PCB via a second adhesive; a piezoelectric element array operatively coupled to a bottom side of the contact foil to receive an applied mechanical stress; and a controller of the information handling system operatively coupled to the piezoelectric element array to: receive electric actuation signals from the piezoelectric element array placed under the mechanical stress via the contact foil; and send an electrical response signal to the piezoelectric element array to cause the piezoelectric element array to generate haptic feedback; and a unibody C-cover support frame to support the touchpad assembly and the seamless layer of glass.

System and method for a single surface palmrest with localized haptics for touchpad and tactile feedback

An apparatus and method of manufacture for a modular seamless touchpad assembly comprising a seamless glass layer extending to a plurality of palm rest surfaces formed over a touchpad support bracket that extends across a top cover of a base chassis of an information handling system and including a touchpad printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and a haptic actuator array coupled between the touchpad PCBA and the touchpad support bracket for generating haptic user feedback. The touchpad support bracket is formed under the haptic actuator array to support the modular seamless touchpad assembly as an installable hardware module to modularly fit within a touchpad opening formed in the top cover of the base chassis and a connector port to operatively couple a haptic touchpad controller with a reciprocal connector in the touchpad opening such that the modular seamless touchpad assembly is testable via the connector port before installation.

System and method of a modular seamless haptic touchpad assembly and method of manufacture of the modular seamless haptic touchpad

A keyboard, touchpad, and palm rest haptic response system may comprise a coversheet to identify a keyboard, a touchpad, and a palm rest on a C-cover for an information handling system, a haptic palm rest and touchpad feedback assembly disposed beneath the haptic palm rest area including haptic touchpad, and a haptic keyboard feedback assembly disposed beneath the keyboard. Keyboard controller and palm rest and touchpad controller may receive piezo actuation signals from keyboard piezoelectric elements and touchpad and palm rest piezoelectric elements, respectively, and send a haptic feedback control signals to the respective keyboard piezoelectric elements or palm rest and touchpad piezoelectric elements to cause keyboard haptic feedback or palmrest or touchpad haptic feedback at an actuation location.

System for providing haptic feedback across full palm rest in fixed position of information handling system

A haptic keyboard of an information handling system may include a coversheet to identify a key location of the haptic keyboard; a support layer; a contact foil placed between the coversheet and support layer; a piezoelectric element placed between the contact foil and support layer to receive an applied mechanical stress at the key location of the coversheet and generate an electric actuation signal; and a controller of the information handling system operatively coupled to the contact foil to: receive an electric actuation signal from the piezoelectric element placed under the mechanical stress via the contact foil; and send an electrical response signal to the piezoelectric element to cause the piezoelectric element to generate haptic feedback at the key location.

System for a solid-state keyboard and touchpad providing haptic feedback

A haptic keyboard of an information handling system may comprise a coversheet to identify a key location, a support layer, a contact foil placed between the coversheet and support layer, and a controller operatively coupled to the contact foil. The controller may receive a haptic actuation indicator signal via a processor or via the contact foil, send a first haptic feedback control signal to a first piezoelectric element to cause the first piezoelectric element to generate haptic tactile movement feedback at the key location, and send a second haptic feedback control signal to the first or a second piezoelectric element to cause the second piezoelectric element to generate haptic sound feedback in response to the haptic actuation indicator signal.

System and method for generating sound effects on fingertips with piezoelectric actuators of a haptic keyboard

Systems and components are provided for charging an Information Handling System (IHS). Systems include an AC adapter configured to report attributes of the adapter. The adapter includes a DC cord that supports a data channel. The DC plug includes a circuit for operating an indicator light based on an control signal. The system includes a power port controller that receives the reported adapter attributes, determines a charging state of the IHS; generates the control signal based on the determined charging state; and transmits the control signal to the indictor light circuit via the data channel. The indicator control signal may be used to operate indicator lights on both ends of a reversible DC cord. The indicator control signal may specify a color or brightness of the indicator and may indicate a charging state of the IHS.

Indicator for AC power adapter

A piezo haptic keyboard and touchpad user identification system may comprise a processor receiving an authenticating user input identifying an authorized user of the information handling system, and a controller operably connected to a plurality of piezo electric elements situated beneath the keyboard. The controller may detect haptic hardware typing or touch behavior parameters describing characteristics of a plurality of deformations of the piezo electric elements during interaction between the authorized user and the keyboard, and the processor may use machine learning to identify a repeated pattern of values for a combination of the haptic hardware typing or touch behavior parameters reoccurring during interaction between the authorized user and keyboard. The processor may associate the repeated pattern of values for the combination of the haptic hardware typing or touch behavior parameters with the authorized user for later, passive authentication of a user based on typing dynamics.

System and method for continuous user identification via piezo haptic keyboard and touchpad dynamics

A haptic keyboard of an information handling system may comprise a coversheet to identify an extended action key of the haptic keyboard, a support layer, a contact foil, and piezoelectric elements placed between the contact foil and support layer to receive an applied mechanical stress at the extended action key and generate an electric actuation signal. A controller may receive the electric actuation signal from a piezoelectric element placed under the mechanical stress, via the contact foil, and determine the level of mechanical stress applied to the piezoelectric element from the electric actuation signal to select an alphanumeric character from a plurality of alphanumeric characters based on the mechanical stress level applied to the extended action key and provide a response haptic feedback control signal to cause the piezoelectric element to generate haptic feedback.

System for extended key actions and haptic feedback and optimized key layout for a solid-state keyboard and touchpad

A coversheet layer of an information handling system, comprising a coversheet having a key location of a haptic keyboard and a haptic touchpad area on a C-cover for the information handling system including a magnet or ferromagnetic insert in the coversheet for alignment to a top replaceable overlay layer magnetically attachable to the coversheet, a support layer, a contact foil placed between the coversheet and support layer, a piezoelectric element placed between the contact foil and support layer to receive an applied mechanical stress at the key location or touchpad actuation location of the coversheet and generate an electric actuation signal and a controller of the information handling system operatively coupled to the contact foil to receive the electric actuation signal and send an electrical haptic response signal to the piezoelectric element to cause the piezoelectric element to generate haptic feedback.

System for a solid-state keyboard and touchpad with a single sheet cover for providing haptic feedback

A haptic keyboard of an information handling system comprising a coversheet to identify keys of the haptic keyboard, a contact foil and a piezoelectric element to receive an applied mechanical stress at a first key of the coversheet and generate an electric actuation signal. A processor executing instructions of a haptic smart typing assistance system to detect and anticipate a next letter of a word being typed and a controller to receive an instruction of the anticipated next letter and increasing force required actuate at least one key for a letter adjacent to the anticipated next letter, and to send a response haptic feedback control signal to the piezoelectric element to cause the piezoelectric element to generate a first haptic feedback at the first key if the anticipated next letter is selected and to generate a second haptic feedback if a typographical error is detected.

System for modified key actions and haptic feedback for smart typing assist with a solid-state keyboard and touchpad

A reconfigurable haptic interface assembly of an information handling system may comprise a coversheet display layer displaying a key location of a haptic keyboard based on a modified configuration, a contact foil placed between the coversheet layer and a support layer, and a piezoelectric element placed between the contact foil and the support layer receiving an applied mechanical stress near the displayed key location, and transmitting a generated piezo actuation signal via the contact foil. A processor may receive the piezo actuation signal, identify x- and y-coordinate location data describing the displayed key location based, in part, on the piezo actuation signal, identify a keyboard scan code associated with the x- and y-coordinate location data, and send a haptic feedback response signal to the piezoelectric element to generate a haptic feedback at the key location and a digital display may display a key register event.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Priyank Gajiwala