Patent Application
20180143728
Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a touch panel apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for piezoelectric force detection.
A display may be utilized to present information to a user. For example, a particular device, such as a mobile device, a user device, a user equipment (UE), or the like, may include a display to provide information, such as via a user interface. The display may be utilized as an input device. For example, the particular device may utilize a capacitive touch panel or a resistive touch panel to identify a location of a touch input (i.e., a touch location), and may determine an input to the particular device based at least in part on the location of the touch input.
In some aspects, a touch panel may include a cover layer, of a plurality of layers, to receive a touch force applied to the touch panel. The touch panel may include a force determination set of layers, of the plurality of layers, configured to determine a magnitude of the touch force applied to the touch panel. The force determination set of layers may include a piezoelectric layer with a set of force determination pixels. The set of force determination pixels may be arranged in a matrix, with a set of rows and a set of columns, to address the set of force determination pixels. A force determination pixel, of the set of force determination pixels, may be configured to generate a charge for determining a location, relative to the set of rows and the set of columns, of the touch force applied to the touch panel and a magnitude of the touch force applied to the touch panel.
In some aspects, a device may include a cover layer, of a plurality of layers, to receive a touch force applied to the device. The device may include a force determination set of layers, of the plurality of layers, configured to determine a magnitude of the touch force applied to the device. The force determination set of layers may be disposed between the cover layer and a display of the device. The force determination set of layers may include a piezoelectric layer with a set of force determination pixels. The set of force determination pixels may be arranged in a matrix, with a set of rows and a set of columns, to address the set of force determination pixels. A force determination pixel, of the set of force determination pixels, may be configured to generate a charge for determining a location, relative to the set of rows and the set of columns, of the touch force applied to the device and a magnitude of the touch force applied to the device.
In some aspects, an apparatus may include a cover layer, of a plurality of layers, to receive a touch force applied to the apparatus. The apparatus may include a force determination set of layers, of the plurality of layers, configured to determine a magnitude of the touch force applied to the apparatus. A display of the apparatus may be disposed between the force determination set of layers and the cover layer. The force determination set of layers may include a piezoelectric layer with a set of force determination pixels. The set of force determination pixels may be arranged in a matrix, with a set of rows and a set of columns, to address the set of force determination pixels. A force determination pixel, of the set of force determination pixels, may be configured to generate a charge for determining a location, relative to the set of rows and the set of columns, of the touch force applied to the apparatus and a magnitude of the touch force applied to the apparatus.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of examples according to the disclosure in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter. The conception and specific examples disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. Characteristics of the concepts disclosed herein, both their organization and method of operation, together with associated advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. Each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description, and not as a definition of the limits of the claims.
So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.
The detailed description set forth below, in connection with the appended drawings, is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details.
Many devices, such as mobile devices (e.g., smart phones), may include a touch panel display. These touch panel displays provide information using a first set of layers associated with a display and receive touch input using a second set of layers associated with determining a location of a touch input (i.e., a touch location). The second set of layers may perform capacitive touch based touch location determination. For example, a device may detect a change to an electrostatic field of a particular layer based at least in part on a touch input, and may determine a touch location based at least in part on the change to the electrostatic field. Similarly, the device may perform resistive touch based touch location determination. For example, the device may detect a change to a voltage associated with a set of layers based at least in part on a deflection of the set of layers by the touch input, and may determine the touch location based at least in part on the change to the voltage. The device may determine a magnitude of a force associated with the touch. For example, based at least in part on a deflection of a layer (e.g., a deformation of a glass surface of the device), the device may determine a magnitude of the touch force.
However, determining a magnitude of a force based at least in part on a deflection of a layer may provide relatively poor sensitivity to touch force. Moreover, sensitivity to touch force may be variable based at least in part on a touch location. In other words, a sensitivity to touch force at a center of the touch panel may be different from a sensitivity to touch force at an edge of the touch panel. This may result in the device performing complex calculations to account for differing sensitivities to touch force, which may reduce battery life of the device and may result in excessive utilization of processing resources. Moreover, each device may require a calibration step before force determination may be performed using a deflection based technique. Furthermore, capacitive touch-based systems may be associated with excessive cost, which may make capacitive touch-based systems infeasible for inclusion in some devices.
In aspects, described herein, a touch panel may utilize a piezoelectric film with matrix-addressed, force determination pixels configured to determine a magnitude of a touch force. In this way, a device may include the touch panel to provide variable user input based at least in part on the magnitude of the touch force and display of information using a display of the touch panel. Moreover, based at least in part on utilizing piezoelectric film, the device may be associated with a reduced cost, a reduced utilization of processing resources, and an improved battery life relative to another technique for determination of a magnitude of a touch force (e.g., a capacitive touch-based system). Furthermore, based at least in part on utilizing the matrix-addressed, force determination pixels of the piezoelectric film, the piezoelectric film may include a reduced quantity of circuits, thereby reducing cost, manufacturing complexity, and power requirements, relative to another piezoelectric-based technique.
As shown in
Cover layer 122 includes one or more transparent layers to receive a touch input, such as a particular touch force (F) with a particular magnitude at a particular touch location. For example, cover layer 122 may include a transparent glass layer, a transparent plastic layer, a transparent crystal layer, or the like. In some aspects, cover layer 122 may include a lens layer. In some aspects, cover layer 122 may include an anti-scratch layer, an anti-glare layer, an anti-reflective layer, or the like. In some aspects, cover layer 122 may be associated with an electrostatic field that is distorted when cover layer 122 receives a touch input, such that the distortion is detectable using touch panel 110. For example, off panel circuitry of a device including touch panel 110 may receive an electrical signal indicating the distortion, and may determine a touch location based at least in part on the electrical signal.
OCA layers 124 include a set of transparent layers to adhere other sets of layers. For example, OCA layer 124-1 may adhere cover layer 122 to ITO layer 126-1, OCA layer 124-2 may adhere PET film layer 128-1 to ITO layer 126-2, and OCA layer 124-3 may adhere PET film layer 128-2 to display 130. In some aspects, OCA layer 124 may include a liquid OCA layer, a solid OCA layer (e.g., an OCA tape layer), or the like. For example, during manufacture of touch panel 110, a set of OCA layers 124 may be deposited to touch panel 110 to permit deposition of subsequent layers to touch panel 110.
ITO layers 126 include a set of conductive, transparent layers to permit capacitive detection of a force location. For example, when cover layer 122 receives a touch input, a distortion of an electrostatic field by the touch input is measurable by a change of capacitance. Off panel circuitry of a device including touch panel 110 may receive an electrical signal from ITO layers 126 based at least in part on the distortion of the electrostatic field, and may determine a touch location of the touch input. In another example, ITO layers 126 may utilize another technique for determining a location of a touch force, such as a resistive touch based technique, a relative magnitude of touch forces based technique, or the like.
PET film layers 128 include a set of transparent layers backing ITO layers 126. For example, PET film layer 128-1 may form a backing for ITO layer 126-1 and PET film layer 128-2 may form a backing layer for ITO layer 126-2. In some aspects, ITO layers 126 may be sputter deposited onto PET film layers 128. In some aspects, PET film layers 128 may include a metal mesh or a set of circuits to direct an electrical signal for capacitive sensing of a touch location toward off panel circuitry to permit the off panel circuitry configured to determine the touch location of the touch input.
Display 130 includes a display to provide information. For example, display 130 may include a light-emitting diode (LED) based display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) based display, or the like. In another example, touch panel 110 may integrate piezoelectric layer 132 into a portion of display 130, such as in a back-lighting portion of display 130 where an opaque characteristic of piezoelectric layer 132 does not obscure display 130 to a viewer of display 130 through cover layer 122.
Piezoelectric layer 132 includes a piezoelectric film configured to determine a magnitude of a touch force when a touch input is received by cover layer 122. For example, piezoelectric layer 132 may include a piezoelectric film adhered to backing layer 134. As shown by reference number 136, the piezoelectric film may include multiple layers (e.g., Rows and Columns) to form a matrix of force determination pixels that are associated with force-sensitive capacitors. Details of the multiple layers are described in more detail with regard to
In some aspects, piezoelectric layer 132 may be patterned into multiple force determination pixels, which are matrix addressed into rows and columns and which are electrically coupled to circuitry associated with determining a magnitude of a touch force. For example, piezoelectric layer 132 may include a metallization to direct electrical signals (e.g., electrical charge) via piezoelectric layer 132 to off panel circuitry to process the electrical signals. In this case, the off panel circuitry may receive the electrical signals and utilize the electrical signals to determine a magnitude of a touch force. Additionally, or alternatively, based at least in part on comparing a relative magnitude of a touch force at multiple force determination pixels, the off panel circuitry may determine a location of a touch input (e.g., based at least in part on identifying a particular force determination pixel registering a greatest amount of force relative to other force determination pixels).
In some aspects, piezoelectric layer 132 may include an opaque layer. For example, piezoelectric layer 132 may include a set of copper layers sandwiching a piezoelectric film, which is constructed from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), PET, or the like. In this case, based at least in part on positioning piezoelectric layer 132 between display 130 and backing layer 134 (e.g., in contrast to being positioned between display 130 and cover layer 122 as described herein with regard to
Backing layer 134 includes a rigid backing layer to reduce a deflection of the touch panel based at least in part on a touch input. For example, based at least in part on a device using touch panel 110 to determine a magnitude of a touch force using a piezoelectric based technique rather than a deflection based technique, backing layer 134 may be included in touch panel 110 to ensure that touch panel 110 is not deflected by a threshold amount by the touch input, thereby improving durability of touch panel 110 relative to another touch panel that is required to be deflected to determine the magnitude of a touch force. In some aspects, backing layer 134 may ensure that force sensitivity is more uniform across touch panel 110 relative to a deflection based force determination technique.
As shown in
In some aspects, when switch 152 is open, a threshold quantity of charge may flow between a ground and a column. In this case, the controller may determine a differential value between a charge flow when switch 152 is open and a charge flow when switch 152 is closed to perform force readout. For example, the controller may perform a first force readout (e.g., of output 146) of the charge of a force determination pixel as a calibration step (e.g., prior to actuating switch 152) to determine a charge leakage, and may perform a second force readout as a force determination step (e.g., after actuating switch 152) to determine a magnitude of a touch force.
In some aspects, the controller may perform force readout without using switches 142 and 152 (e.g., for a piezoelectric layer 132 that does not include switches 142 and 152 that does not perform both force determination and force location determination). For example, the controller may utilize a set of short circuits of a metallization of piezoelectric layer 132 to perform force readout.
Although referred to, herein, as off panel circuitry, a controller and/or other circuitry described herein may be included in a touch panel, such as touch panel 110.
As shown with regard to
In this way, a device may utilize touch panel 110, which provides a set of layers associated with performing capacitive force location (e.g., ITO layers 126) and a set of layers associated with performing force determination (e.g., piezoelectric layer 132) to determine a touch location and a magnitude of a touch force. In another example, touch panel 110 may omit layers of touch panel 110 associated with determining the touch location (e.g., for a device that is to receive input based at least in part on a touch force without determining a touch location or for a device that is to determine a touch location based at least in part on comparing relative magnitudes of the touch force at multiple force determination pixels). Based at least in part on using matrix addressed rows and columns of piezoelectric layer 132, touch panel 110 includes a reduced quantity of signal leads to connect to the force-sensitive capacitors relative to another touch panel that utilizes dedicated circuitry for each force-sensitive capacitor.
As indicated above,
As shown in
As further shown in
In some aspects, piezoelectric layer 220 may include a PVDF based layer, a PVDF on PET based layer, or the like, which may permit piezoelectric layer 220 to include circuitry for both piezoelectric force determination and capacitive touch location determination. In some aspects, piezoelectric layer 220 may be a transparent layer. For example, piezoelectric layer 220 may include a transparent material to permit piezoelectric layer 220 to be positioned between cover layer 122 and display 130 without obscuring display 130. In this case, a firm backing layer may be integrated into display 130, thereby reducing a size and a cost of touch panel 210 relative to another type of touch panel that requires a separate firm backing layer to back a piezoelectric layer.
As shown in
As further shown in
As further shown in
In another example, an inductor and a series switch may be integrated into piezoelectric layer 220 to provide an inductance of approximately 10 millihenry (mH) to block 100 KHz electrical signals associated with determination of a touch location with an approximately 10 kilo-ohm (kOhm) impedance and only an approximately 1 ohm impedance to baseband (e.g., less than approximately 10 Hz) electrical signals associated with determination of a magnitude of a touch force. Based at least in part on using a first range of signal frequencies (e.g., approximately 100 KHz) to determine a location of a touch force and a second range of signal frequencies (e.g., baseband) associated with determination of the magnitude of the touch force, touch panel 210 may be utilized to perform concurrent touch location determination and touch force determination.
In another example, one or more amplifiers, inductors, or the like may be omitted from touch panel 210 when the controller is configured to disable determination of a touch location during force determination of a magnitude of a touch force. In this case, switches 242 and 252 may remain open when a determination of a touch location is to be performed, and determination of a touch location is suspended (e.g., by disabling an electrical signal associated with determination of a touch location), when a determination of a magnitude of a touch force is to be performed.
In this way, a device may utilize touch panel 210, which provides a single set of layers associated with performing a capacitive technique for determining a touch location and a piezoelectric technique for determining a magnitude of a touch force. Based at least in part on integrating circuitry for both the capacitive technique and the piezoelectric technique into a common set of layers, touch panel 210 is associated with a reduced cost and a reduced size relative to another type of touch panel that requires separate sets of layers for a determination of a touch location and a determination of a magnitude of a touch force.
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As indicated above,
In this case, the piezoelectric charge may flow to cause a piezoelectric force determination for a force determination pixel of the piezoelectric layer to be performed. For example, the piezoelectric charge may flow to a feedback capacitor of a transimpedance amplifier of force determination column circuit 310-1, such as amplifier 144 shown in
Subsequently, the controller may deactivate the switch of force determination column circuit 310-1, select another column, and activate another switch of the other column, such as a column associated with force determination column circuit 310-2, to determine a force associated with another force determination pixel of the piezoelectric layer. After determining the force for each force determination pixel of the row of the piezoelectric layer, the controller may deactivate force determination row circuit 320-1, select another row, such as a row associated with force determination row circuit 320-2, and may determine a force associated with each force determination pixel of the other row by selecting the columns for activation. In another example, the controller may select multiple force determination pixels concurrently, such as by activating a row switch and all of the column switches to determine a force associated with a row for force determination pixels. Similarly, the controller may activate a column switch and all of the row switches. In this way, the touch panel enables a force determination to be performed with multiple levels of granularity and rapidity.
As indicated above,
In some aspects, a display device described herein may include one or more devices 400 and/or one or more components of device 400. As shown in
Bus 410 includes a component that permits communication among the components of device 400. Processor 420 is implemented in hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software. Processor 420 includes a processor (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and/or an accelerated processing unit (APU)), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, and/or any processing component (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and/or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) that interprets and/or executes instructions. In some aspects, processor 420 includes one or more processors capable of being programmed to perform a function. For example, processor 420 may include one or more processors capable of receiving an electrical signal from input component 450 and determining a touch location or a magnitude of a touch force based at least in part on the electrical signal. In some aspects, processor 420 may include a controller (e.g., of a touch panel). Additionally, or alternatively, processor 420 may include one or more processors capable of controlling electrical circuitry of an input component 450. Memory 430 includes a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and/or another type of dynamic or static storage device (e.g., a flash memory, a magnetic memory, and/or an optical memory) that stores information and/or instructions for use by processor 420.
Storage component 440 stores information and/or software related to the operation and use of device 400. For example, storage component 440 may include a hard disk (e.g., a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optic disk, and/or a solid state disk), a compact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a floppy disk, a cartridge, a magnetic tape, and/or another type of non-transitory computer-readable medium, along with a corresponding drive.
Input component 450 includes a component that permits device 400 to receive information, such as via user input (e.g., a touch screen display, a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a button, a switch, and/or a microphone). Additionally, or alternatively, input component 450 may include a sensor for sensing information (e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) component, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and/or an actuator).
In some aspects, input component 450 includes a touch panel 482 of a touch screen display. Touch panel 482 includes a force determination component 484 and/or a touch location component 486. In some aspects, touch panel 482 corresponds to touch panel 110 shown in
Output component 460 includes a component that provides output information from device 400 (e.g., a display, a speaker, and/or one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs)). In some aspects, output component 460 includes touch panel 482. Touch panel 482 includes a display component 488, such as a display corresponding to display 130 shown in
Communication interface 470 includes a transceiver-like component (e.g., a transceiver and/or a separate receiver and transmitter) that enables device 400 to communicate with other devices, such as via a wired connection, a wireless connection, or a combination of wired and wireless connections. Communication interface 470 may permit device 400 to receive information from another device and/or provide information to another device. For example, communication interface 470 may include an Ethernet interface, an optical interface, a coaxial interface, an infrared interface, a radio frequency (RF) interface, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a Wi-Fi interface, a cellular network interface, or the like.
Device 400 may perform one or more processes described herein. Device 400 may perform these processes in response to processor 420 executing software instructions stored by a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as memory 430 and/or storage component 440. A computer-readable medium is defined herein as a non-transitory memory device. A memory device includes memory space within a single physical storage device or memory space spread across multiple physical storage devices.
Software instructions may be read into memory 430 and/or storage component 440 from another computer-readable medium or from another device via communication interface 470. When executed, software instructions stored in memory 430 and/or storage component 440 may cause processor 420 to perform one or more processes described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to perform one or more processes described herein. Thus, aspects described herein are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.
The number and arrangement of components shown in
As shown in
In some aspects, device 400 may receive multiple touch inputs at multiple sections of the touch panel. For example, device 400 may receive multiple touch inputs at multiple sections of the touch panel, such as to cause a multi-touch gesture, to interact with multiple user interface elements (e.g., multiple buttons), or the like. In this case, device 400 may generate piezoelectric charge at multiple force determination pixels corresponding to the multiple sections of the touch panel and in proportion to a magnitude of a touch force for each of the multiple touch inputs.
As shown in
In some aspects, device 400 may read out a set of force determination pixels to determine the magnitude of the touch force. For example, device 400 may activate a first row switch, and may activate and deactivate (e.g., open) each column switch sequentially to cause a discharge of each capacitor of each force determination pixel corresponding to the first row switch. In this case, device 400 may sequentially determine the magnitude of the touch force for each force determination pixel corresponding to the first row switch. Similarly, device 400 may, after activating each column switch for the first row switch, deactivate the first row switch, select a second row switch, and sequentially activate and deactivate each column switch for the second row switch. Similarly, device 400 may activate a column switch, and may cycle through multiple row switches, sequentially. In this way, device 400 determines a magnitude of a touch force for each force determination pixel of the touch panel.
In some aspects, device 400 may read out multiple force determination pixels concurrently to determine the magnitude of the touch force. For example, device 400 may activate a row switch and multiple column switches (or a column switch and multiple row switches) to determine a magnitude of a touch force based at least in part on piezoelectric charge generated by multiple force determination pixels associated with a row (or column). In this way, device 400 may reduce an amount of time to determine a magnitude of a touch force and/or may permit determination of a magnitude of a touch force for a touch input that is expected to be larger than an area of a single force determination pixel.
In some aspects, device 400 may read out a particular force determination pixel. For example, when device 400 expects to receive a touch input to a particular location of the touch panel (e.g., a button provided via a user interface), device 400 may activate a row switch and a column switch corresponding to the particular location to determine a piezoelectric charge generated by the particular force determination pixel and stored as electrical charge using a capacitor of the particular force determination pixel. In some aspects, device 400 may read out the particular force determination pixel based at least in part on determining a touch location. For example, based at least in part on determining a touch location, such as using a capacitive technique, device 400 may activate a row switch and a column switch corresponding to a force determination pixel at the touch location. In this way, device 400 reduces a utilization of processing resources, a utilization of electrical resources, and a time to determine a magnitude of a touch force relative to attempting to read out all of the force determination pixels.
In some aspects, device 400 may determine the magnitude of the touch force at a particular time. For example, device 400 may utilize a timer to periodically read out a set of force determination pixels. In some aspects, device 400 may utilize the timer to alternate (e.g., separate in the time domain) determination of a touch location and determination of a magnitude of the touch force. Additionally, or alternatively, device 400 may separate determination of the touch location and the magnitude of the touch force in the frequency domain by using multiple frequencies of electrical signals, as described in more detail with regard to
In some aspects, device 400 may determine the magnitude of the touch force based at least in part on multiple touch forces associated with multiple pixels. For example, device 400 may identify a particular force determination pixel associated with a greatest electrical charge relative to the other force determination pixels, and may determine the magnitude of the touch force based at least in part on the electrical charge associated with the particular force determination pixel. Additionally, or alternatively, device 400 may determine multiple magnitudes of multiple touch forces. For example, based at least in part on detecting multiple touch locations using a capacitive technique, device 400 may determine multiple magnitudes of multiple touch forces associated with the multiple touch locations based at least in part on electrical charges associated with force determination pixels corresponding to the multiple touch locations. In some aspects, device 400 may determine a quantity of touch inputs based on a magnitude of the touch force. For example, a first threshold touch force may correspond to a single touch input and a second threshold touch force may correspond to a multi-touch touch input. In this way, device 400 determines a quantity of touches. In some aspects, device 400 may detect a touch input based on a magnitude of a touch force satisfying a threshold. For example, when the magnitude of the touch force is less than the threshold, device 400 may determine that a touch input has not occurred, but when the magnitude of the touch force is greater than the threshold, device 400 may determine that the touch input has occurred.
In some aspects, device 400 may determine the magnitude of the touch force using off panel circuitry. For example, device 400 may include processing circuitry (e.g., a processor) to determine a magnitude of a touch force corresponding to a piezoelectric charge generated by a piezoelectric film of a force determination pixel and stored using a capacitor of the force determination pixel. Based at least in part on the piezoelectric charge being proportional to the touch force and a coefficient of piezoelectricity of the piezoelectric film, device 400 can determine the magnitude of the touch force with a reduced utilization of processing resources relative to calculating the magnitude of the touch force based at least in part on a calibrated deflection based technique. Moreover, device 400 can determine the magnitude of the touch force without requiring a determination of a precise location of the touch force as may be required for the calibrated deflection based technique.
As shown in
Although
Apparatuses described herein use a touch panel with a matrix addressed piezoelectric layer configured to determine a magnitude of a touch force, which obviates a need for the touch panel to deflect to determine the magnitude of the touch force, thereby reducing a utilization of processing resources, reducing a size and a cost of the touch panel, and improving a durability of the touch panel and/or the apparatus that includes the touch panel.
The foregoing disclosure provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the aspects to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure or may be acquired from practice of the aspects.
As used herein, the term component is intended to be broadly construed as hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software.
Some aspects are described herein in connection with thresholds. As used herein, satisfying a threshold may refer to a value being greater than the threshold, greater than or equal to the threshold, less than the threshold, less than or equal to the threshold, equal to the threshold, not equal to the threshold, or the like.
It will be apparent that systems and/or methods, described herein, may be implemented in different forms of hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software. The actual specialized control hardware or software code used to implement these systems and/or methods is not limiting of the aspects. Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems and/or methods were described herein without reference to specific software code—it being understood that software and hardware can be designed to implement the systems and/or methods based at least in part on the description herein.
Even though particular combinations of features are recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of possible aspects. In fact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of possible aspects includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in the claim set. A phrase referring to “at least one of a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c.
No element, act, or instruction used herein should be construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the articles “a” and “an” are intended to include one or more items, and may be used interchangeably with “one or more.” Furthermore, as used herein, the terms “set” and “group” are intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, unrelated items, etc.), and may be used interchangeably with “one or more.” Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Also, as used herein, the terms “has,” “have,” “having,” or the like are intended to be open-ended terms. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.
