Operating unit for a vehicle component, in particular human-machine interface for a vehicle

An operating unit for a vehicle component, particularly a human-machine interface (MMI or HMI) for a vehicle, comprising

• a housing with a frame,
• a display arranged in and/or at the housing with a transparent cover pane having an edge which is enclosed by the frame,
• a touch sensor system arranged in and/or at the housing, and
• a plurality of actuators arranged adjacently along the edge of the cover pane for introducing flexural waves into the cover pane,
• wherein each actuator on the cover pane is assigned to a contact surface by means of which the actuator acts on the cover pane in order to introduce flexural waves into the cover pane,
• wherein the flexural waves introduced by the actuators into the cover pane are superposed in the cover pane and provide the cover pane with a tactilely sensible, locally resolved surface structure, and
• wherein the contact surfaces are each arranged at a distance from the frame of the housing, and consequently the introduction of flexural waves into the cover pane and/or the propagation of flexural waves in the cover pane is damped for wavelengths or frequencies resulting from the magnitude of the distance, and
• wherein the distance is selected in such a way that flexural waves having frequencies in the audible frequency range are damped, and
• an evaluation and control unit connected to the touch sensor system and the actuators for controlling the touch sensor system in order to evaluate the signals provided by the touch sensor system, and for controlling the actuators depending on the signals provided by the touch sensor system.