Kyocera, a manufacturer of fine ceramic components and electronics headquartered in Kyoto (Japan), has joined the current financing round of TactoTek Oy, a spin-out of the Finnish Technical Research Center VTT in Oulu (Finland) founded in 2011, with an investment of € 5 million. TactoTek develops and markets production methods for injection molded structural electronics (IMSE).
IMSE is primarily used in human-machine interfaces for the automotive, smart home and electrical appliance markets. Kyocera is using the Finns' IMSE technology to further develop its haptics solution HAPTIVITY by molding its piezoceramic actuators into IMSE components to create HAPTIVITY. Kyocera's HAPTIVITY platform combines force sensing and tactile feedback to create intuitive and user-friendly feedback to the operator.
According to Masafumi Ikeuchi, Managing Director of Kyocera Corporation, the use of capacitive touch switches in HMIs has gained acceptance and the market demand for tactile feedback is growing steadily. However, conventional technology has not been able to equip thinner and lighter devices with tactile functions.
As a licensee of TactoTek, Kyocera has integrated its components into IMSE interfaces for human-machine interfaces (HMI) and offers special thin, light and above all tactile HMI solutions.
