Patent ID: 8398451

Claim:
An apparatus adapted to dynamically interact with a user in response to a physical contact, the apparatus comprising: a first sensor effective to sense a first magnitude of a first force, and to sense a first location of a physical contact with at least a portion of the apparatus and to produce a first signal in response; a second sensor effective to be in operating relationship with the first sensor, the second sensor effective to sense a second magnitude of a second force, and to sense a second location of the physical contact with at least a portion of the apparatus and to produce a second signal in response; a logic device configured to: periodically scan at a sampling rate the first and second sensors to collect the first and second sensor signals, produce a first characterization of the physical contact from the first signal and the sampling rate, produce a second characterization of the physical contact from the second signal and the sampling rate, and produce a third characterization of the physical contact, different from the first and second characterizations of the physical contact, the third characterization based on the combination of the first and the second signals and the sampling rate; and an output device configured to produce an output based at least in part upon the third characterization of the physical contact.