Patent ID: 7719393

Claim:
An actuating apparatus for operating a drive, steering or retardation means of a motor vehicle, comprising a signal converter ( 26 ; 60 ) which produces a control signal dependent on an actuating travel, characterized in that the signal converter ( 26 ; 60 ) comprises an elastic and conductive shaped body having a first and a second outside surface which are arranged at a spacing relative to each other, which is provided with a first electrical contact region ( 29 ; 62 ) which extends over the first outside surface of the shaped body and which is galvanically conductively connected to the shaped body and to a first feed line ( 30 ; 64 ) and a second electrical contact region ( 29 ′; 63 ) which extends along the second surface of the shaped body and is galvanically conductively connected to the shaped body and to a second feed line ( 30 ′; 65 ), wherein electrical resistance of the shaped body between the first and second electrical contact regions ( 29 , 29 ′; 62 , 63 ) is dependent on the spacing of the first second electrical contact regions ( 29 , 29 ′; 62 , 63 ) and that connected downstream of the signal converter ( 26 ; 60 ) is a measurement transducer ( 32 ) whose inputs are connected by way of the first and second feed lines ( 30 , 30 ′; 64 , 65 ) to the first and second electrical contact regions ( 29 , 29 ′; 62 , 63 ) and at whose output a control signal ( 44 ) can be taken off, which is dependent on the electrical resistance of the shaped body, wherein the shaped body ( 61 ) has a compression characteristic ( 80 ) E=f(S) with regions of different compression in respect of volume, in particular with a region ( 81 ) with a low level of compression in respect of volume and a region ( 82 ) of high compression in respect of volume, in such a way that a substantially linear relationship between compression stroke distance S and mechanical energy E absorbed upon compression exists in the region of the low level of compression in respect of volume and an over-proportionally non-linear relationship between the compression stroke distance S and the mechanical energy E absorbed upon compression exists in the region of the high level of compression in respect of volume.