Patent ID: 7077015

Claim:
An area tactile stimulation display device, or “area tactile display device”, comprising a plurality of individual, unitary, tactile stimulation display devices, each of said individual tactile stimulation display devices having a common base support and a plurality of individually actuatable, bendable, cantilevered arms mounted in line on said base support wherein: a) each of said arms has skin engaging tip ends directed away from the base support for effecting tactile stimulation of a skin surface contacting such tip ends through deformation of the skin surface, and b) the tip ends on each of said arms are independently displaceable, upon actuation, laterally to the line of said arms to positions that are out of alignment with the line of arms, whereby said ends, upon displacement from their initial positions in the line of said arms, transfer a deforming force to skin surface contacted by such tip ends, tending to deform skin so contacted in a direction parallel to the skin surface and transversely to the line of arms wherein said individual tactile stimulation display devices are arranged in first and second sub-arrays wherein respective member devices of the first and second sub-arrays are positioned to intersect with each other.