A piezoelectric keyswitch for providing tactile response comprises a bimorphic piezoelectric element anchored at its edge, and a keypad mounted on the bimorphic piezoelectric element spaced from the anchored edge so that depression of the keypad flexes the element to generate an electrical signal. A drive circuit responds to the electrical signal to provide a drive signal to bend the piezoelectric element to provide upward tactile feedback to the keypad.

An apparatus for providing detent-like tactile feedback to a user, comprising a shell, a rolling member rotatably provided within the shell, a motion sensing mechanism for determining displacement of the rolling member when the rolling member is rotated, at least one actuator situated within the shell and at least one brake member provided with respect to the at least one actuator, the at least one actuator retracting and extending the at least one brake member to selectively influence the rotation of the rolling member based on feedback from the embodying system.

A keyboard unit capable of making large the stroke of a key top and a sure click touch. In one aspect of the invention, the keyboard unit of the present invention comprises an elastic material such as a domed reversible return spring. In another aspect, a predetermined space is formed between a piezoelectric element and the base plate. The piezoelectric elements may extend underneath two support bodies from a first support body to a second support body. Each membrane switch and the return spring is depressed and reversed by a stem, wherein each of the piezoelectric elements is driven through the contact point of the respective membrane switch. The resulting driving force is transmitted to the respective key top through the stem. The stem is then elastically deformed and contracted by the inertia force pressing the key top to produce the stroke of the key top.

An object of this invention is to provide a system switch device having a board switch and a display unit separated from the latter, with which terminals units can be operated in a blind touch mode. The system switch device comprises: a board switch having switches and touch-operated mechanisms which give a sense of contact to the finger of the operator in response to the key operations of the switches, an electronic control unit operating to control terminal units according to switch signals from the board switch; and a display unit for displaying a selected content according to a switch signal from the board switch with the aid of the electronic control unit. In the device, with respect to an optional switch position in a key operation of the board switch, the center of the screen of the display unit is displayed in a predetermined display color, and the switch position in the following key operation is displayed on the display unit by causing the electronic control unit to calculate its amount of movement with the switch position inputted before as a reference, so that the key operation is performed according to the content displayed on the display unit.

A software application has certain keyboard hot key combinations. If the application is active the pressing of a key is detected for the application. A number of keyboard keys are selected responsive to the key pressed. The selected keys correspond to hot key combinations that include the pressed key. The keyboard is signaled to differentiate the selected keys. Further, the application is operable to have a number of contexts, where certain ones of the hot key combinations are only valid for certain of the contexts. For example, where the application includes a word processing function one of the application contexts is a circumstance in which text is selected. Accordingly, the method includes detecting the context of the application and the selecting is responsive to that context. In this situation the selected keys correspond to hot key combinations that include the pressed key and that are valid for the detected context.