Apple comes forth with innovative Force Sensor Mouse!

With an Apple patent filing that was uncovered on last Thursday, it displays the latest and new kind of advanced mouse, which employs sensors that can measure the location plus the level of force that is being applied on its main button. It also indicated the pressure that is exerted on its haptis system to provide one with feedback.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Apple’s novel application regarding the ‘Force Sensing Mouse’. This mouse does not only provide you with an estimate on how hard the user has applied pressure on it but also through the system of haptic vibrations sends forth a confirmation feedback.

This operation is principally built on the system of strain gauge, which is fixed to the beam or the cantilever arm. The design is quite similar to the usual Apple mouse designs, and comes with one large single top section, which tends to act as a button. The accessory can very easily transfer force through this arm section moving straight in to the sensor mode.

For example, if a particular user presses down hard on the mouse, the cantilever arm may bend a little twist or even flex. This way it ends up distorting the strain gauge, which in turn outputs a certain level of voltage that is translated into a kind of input signal. By processing through the voltage output, the mouse can gauge the kind of force that is applied by the user thus creating accordingly, control signal.
The effective haptic feedback is an electromagnet, which is disposed in the body of the mouse in such a way that it out rightly hits the top portion the moment it is activated. On the other hand, the well-rooted embedded vibration motors is placed in several positions around the mouse, so that it can come about with the apt and accurate level of feedback.

Practically, a user tends to move a UI cursor on top of a particular icon and then exerts pressure on first force, to select the related asset. This way it will immediately trigger the feedback forcefully. If the level of pressure is a bit harder, it tends to induce pressure on the execution of command, for instance, when you open a folder or any kind of app, you will notice that the mouse tends to respond with a more intensive vibration. In this way the user gets to navigate, select and then activate different kinds of graphical assets by the system of one button press, hence getting hold of feedback all through the way.

Apple has also kept a note about its pivot-style orientation design, which might tend to bring in a bit of distortion while reading, because the force transferred through the cantilever beam is relatively, where more force gets transferred when it is nearer to the mechanical elements of the mouse. Thus to mend this issue and to pinpoint finger location, this particular discovery proposes to deploy a touch sensor, just as the one that is available in Apple's Magic Mouse.