Patent claim: The electronic device of any of claims 10 11 or 12 the user input device further comprising a set of resilient spacers 424 disposed between and abutting a bottom surface 416 of the deformable layer 418 and a top surface 412 of the translucent layer 408.

Related passage: The fourth embodiment is an improvement to the third embodiment.The biggest problem when the strips are aligned is that that manufacturing step is difficult.A method of simplifying the manufacture while maintaining the same sensor capability is the socalled step method as described in the following.As shown in Fig.15 a stepshaped interface is prepared parts of the elastic body constitute the markers.Because of the stepped shape the interface can be divided into two surface groups all surfaces in a group having the same direction.The surfaces in each group are made thesame color here they are red and blue.In doing this an image taken from above becomes as shown in Fig.16.If the width of each strip is sufficiently thinner than one pixel on an imaging element the colors of two strips are mixed together and observed as an image of a single color.If the sensor body is touched the respective inclination of the strips varies but this is observed as a variation in color.In the case where horizontal force is applied to the contact surface Fig.16b each strip is subjected to rotational movement at respective locations and as a result on an image taken from above one of the surface groups is seen to be compressed while the other surface group is seen to be expanded.Specifically it is observed as a variation of the ratio of the two colors.Also if a vertical force is applied to the contact surface Fig.16c the inclination of the strips is similarly altered but there is no variation in the ratio of the two colors but a variation in the brightness of the image.Specifically since the difference and sum of brightness for each color being observed red and blue varies due to force components in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction it is possible to acquire observation values containing vertical and horizontal components of force vectors at a particular point as information by observation of brightness of the two colors at that point.By sensing the observation values it is possible to reconstruct surface distribution of force vectors.This system can be said to be the same as the previously described strip type sensor in that surface inclination plays a fundamental role but it has the advantage from a manufacturing viewpoint that compared to the strips the stepshaped surfaces can be made in a single process by filling silicone undiluted into a die.Also in order to simplify the description a method using two colors has been described but as shown in Fig.17 using so called pyramid manufacturing where microscopic cubes are gathered at a bottom surface if three groups of surfaces facing in the same direction are respectively made the same color for example red green and blue then similarly to the previous discussion it is possible to respectively obtain two degrees of freedom for force acting in a horizontal direction on a contact surface as brightness ratios for three colors and force acting in a vertical direction using a total brightness of the three colors.