Vibration Alerting Applications

Overview

Vibration alerting and haptic feedback are different but commonly confused. To understand this difference in more detail, take a look at our haptic feedback vs vibration alerting article. In essence vibration alerting is about capturing a operator or users attention, whereas haptics are about conveying information.

Vibration alerts are integrated into many different products as they are an easy way of reliably and in some cases discretely communicating with the operator. The most notable example is the introduction of vibra-alerts in mobile phones. Phones vibrate when receiving a phone call or text message; a feature which proved to be so popular that even the cheapest cell phones come with a vibration alerting capability as standard.

Because of the success in mobile phones, and advancements in motor technology, vibration alerting can be implemented a multitude of different products of different sizes. Encapsulated vibration motors and coin vibrating motors have aided their physical integration, and our Pico Vibe range includes motors as small as 3.2mm in diameter.

Event Alerting in Handheld Equipment

Vibration alerting in handheld equipment, such as industrial tools or medical equipment, is a simple and effective way of capturing the attention of the user.

In fact, this is a strong area of growth for alerting functions as traditionally illumination (LED / Lamps) and sirens have been the mainstay of operator feedback for decades. Many companies making gas monitors, tyre gauges, torque wrenches, multi-meters and a host of other instruments, detectors and monitoring devices are adding vibration alerts to their products. This is particularly useful in areas where protective clothing must be worn, and there is a noisy environment which would impede the operators ability to hear an audible alert.

Whereas haptic feedback provides more detailed information through varying vibration strengths, frequencies, or patterns, vibration alerting is there to grab a users attention. It is therefore often better to start with a larger motor and scale the vibration intensity back if it is perceived to be too strong.

Since the vibrating motor performance requirements are not as strict, the drive circuitry can be simpler making it cheaper and easy to produce. We have application bulletins on discrete motor drive circuits, which can be compared to our advanced haptic feedback control bulletin.

Emergency Alerting

Emergency alerting applications can be of utmost importance, where the introduction of vibrating alerts can help save lives.

By designing vibration alerts into products such as respiratory equipment, chemical monitoring, or fire alarm equipment, and augmenting traditional sirens and visual indicators, users and operators are more likely to receive an early warning, creating valuable time to evacuate or make remedies to the situation.

In some situations, it may not be reliable to communicate events solely through sounds or lights, and vibration alerting can help overcome these obstacles.

A number of automobile vibration alerting applications are popular for increasing the driver and passenger safety, for example vibration alerts are used to and alert the driver to fatigue.

Precision Microdrives stocks the widest range of vibration alerting products currently available. We also lead the market with technical guidance and application support.