Design of a new miniature haptic button based on magneto-rheological fluids

This paper presents a new miniature haptic button based on MR fluids which conveys realistic and exiting haptic button profiles in small handheld devices. A novel mechanism is presented to maximize the resistive force and create various kinesthetic sensations even in the small size. After construction of a prototype, the performance of the proposed haptic button was measured by varying input voltages. Experimental results show that the proposed haptic button is able to provide various kinesthetic sensations to users. We also propose the control architecture and system configuration with wireless communication, using the array of proposed haptic buttons with flexible display.