Low-price vibrator making sharp, short vibrations
Come on… What were you expecting?? ;)
Tech-On! reports that Alps Electric will launch this month the Force Reactor AF Series a “vibrator capable of making a sharp, short vibration”, which will be targeted at car navigation systems touch panels and game machine controllers.
What “short” means is that the touch panel will provide a “clicking” feeling to the user when they touch the screen. To do that, the speed of the vibration had to be shortened. The convergent time of this the AF series is of 50 ms instead of 300 ms with the “eccentric vibration motor” usually used in common cell phones, and it can be shortened to 30 ms by replacing the magnet, which gives users a sharper, shorter vibration feedback.
Another feature of the AF series is its price which can be priced much lower than the piezoelectric element. According to the company; “We’ve heard that the or higher per unit when including a driver IC. Alps Electric hopes to soon be able to sell the AF series vibrators at 10% the price of “piezoelectric” ones, which usually cost 2,000 yen and over ($20).
Tech-wise, they also mention that “the AF series requires only one transistor since it is driven by a quite simple pulse” but I will admit I have no idea how good a news it is…
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