Haptics is a tactile and force feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying haptic feedback effects (i.e., “haptic effects”), such as forces, vibrations, and motions, to the user. Devices, such as mobile devices, touchscreen devices, and personal computers, can be configured to generate haptic effects. In general, calls to embedded hardware capable of generating haptic effects (such as actuators) can be programmed within an operating system (“OS”) of the device. These calls specify which haptic effect to play. For example, when a user interacts with the device using, for example, a button, touchscreen, lever, joystick, wheel, or some other control, the OS of the device can send a play command through control circuitry to the embedded hardware. The embedded hardware then produces the appropriate haptic effect that is perceived by the user.
Different users, with different haptic enabled applications, prefer different settings. Some, for example, prefer strong haptic effects while others prefer them to be more subtle, or even absent. The default settings for haptic content are typically the same for all users and thus may be acceptable for some of the users, while being unacceptable for others.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds