1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a display and a touch-control method thereof, and in particular, to an LCD (liquid crystal display) and a touch-control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding conventional touch panel technologies, capacitive touch panels, touch-pen touch panels, resistive touch panels, and the like are mainly involved. In such cases, the capacitive touch panels utilize the human body static electricity for sensing, and are mainly employed in ATMs (automated teller machines) or stock exchange systems. The touch-pen touch panel is an extension of the above-mentioned capacitive touch panel, and can sense a hand or a specific touch-pen. The sensing mode of the touch-pen touch panel can be set as a finger only mode, a pen only mode, or both. The resistive touch panel senses the touch point by sensing pressure, so that there is no limitation to the materials of the touching media, which can be used with the resistive touch panel. In general, the resistive touch panel has a top-sheet, which is made of polyatomic lipid material. A transparent electro conductive layer is formed on the inner surface of the top-sheet, which is kept by a distance with a glass sheet having another transparent electro conductive layer on its surface. Accordingly, when the top-sheet is charged with a current and is touched, the transparent electro conductive layer on the polyatomic lipid material contacts the transparent electro conductive layer on the glass, so that the charged current flows through the transparent electro conductive layer on the glass to the corners of the touch panel. A controller then retrieves the current values from the corners so as to calculate the coordinates of the touch point.
Considering the above-mentioned touch-control technologies, although they offer their own advantages, they also share the same drawbacks, which are described in the following:
All of the above-mentioned touch-control technologies require an additional touch plate, a controller, and the like on a conventional screen or panel such as an LCD or CRT display, so that the display can be equipped with a touch-control function. In other words, the present display with a touch-control function actually includes a display panel and an additional touch-control device so as to carry out the touch-control function, as the display panel itself does not provide the touch-control function.
Since the touch-control device such as the touch plate is not an integral part of the display, to achieve the accuracy of the screen coordination, it must be carefully calibrated.
Moreover, since the touch-control device such as a touch plate is not an integral part of the display, it may partially block the light intensity of the display, so that the brightness of the entire display is reduced.
Furthermore, since the touch-control device such as the touch plate is not an integral part of the display, the manufacturing cost thereof is increased.
Therefore, it is a subjective of the invention to provide a display, which does not require an additional touch plate, does not affect the brightness of the display, has lower manufacturing cost, and has accurate coordination of the screen without requiring adjustment.
It is therefore an objective of the invention to provide a touch-control method of an LCD, which has a touch-control function without the additional touch plate.
It is another objective of the invention to provide an LCD, which has a touch-control function without the additional touch plate.
In one aspect of the invention, the values of liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the scan lines and a counter electrode (or opposite electrode) of an LCD, which has the typical LCD structure, are detected during the idling time in-between writing periods, in which each of the scan lines turns on sequentially to write image data signal into the LCD screen. In this case, the idling time in-between writing periods means that all transistors corresponding to all scan lines are turned off. Thus, the invention can determine whether the LCD screen is touched or not according to the values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode. When the LCD screen is touched and detected as above, a voltage signal is charged to each of the data lines, and the values of liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN formed between the data lines and the counter electrode are then detected. Subsequently, the position of the touch point on the LCD screen can be detected according to the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode and the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN formed between the data lines and the counter electrode, thus obtaining the touch-control function.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide an LCD, which includes a first sensing circuit, a timing control circuit, a voltage-signal generating circuit, and a second sensing circuit. The first sensing circuit detects the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode, and detects a scan-line-direction touch position Y according to the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode. The timing control circuit controls the first sensing circuit to detect the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode during the idling time in-between writing periods, in which each of the scan lines turns on sequentially to write image data signal into the LCD screen. The timing control circuit further controls the voltage-signal generating circuit to charge a voltage signal to the data lines needed to be detected after the scan-line-direction touch position Y is detected. The second sensing circuit detects the values of liquid crystal capacitances formed between the data lines and the counter electrode after the voltage signal is charged, and detects a data-line-direction touch position X according to the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the data lines and the counter electrode.
As mentioned above, since the LCD and touch-control method thereof of the invention directly employ the present TFT-LCD structure, the additional touch plate and controller are unnecessary, and the touch-control method automatically shares the same coordination as the LCD screen without requiring the conventional accurate adjustment. Furthermore, since the additional touch plate is unnecessary, the light intensity of the LCD would not be blocked, so that the brightness of the entire LCD increases. Moreover, since the additional touch plate is unnecessary, the manufacturing cost of the LCD reduces.
The invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given in the herein below illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the invention, and wherein:
The embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Before the description of the embodiments, the structure of an LCD will be illustrated with reference to
Referring to
With reference to
C=∈(A/d) (1)
Referring to
The touch-control method of an LCD of the invention is described in the following with reference to
As shown in
In the first touch-position sensing step S1, the values of liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the counter electrode and the scan lines needed to be detected are detected, respectively, during the idling time in-between writing periods, in which each of the scan lines turns on sequentially to write image data into the LCD screen. Then, a scan-line-direction touch position Y is detected according to the values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM. In this embodiment, for example, when the value of a liquid crystal capacitance Ck, which is one of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM, corresponding to one of the scan lines is greater than a scan-line comparing value, the position of this scan line is determined as the scan-line-direction touch position Y. The scan-line comparing value may be equal to a predetermined value plus the minimum one of the values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM, or may be equal to a predetermined value plus one of the values of the previously detected liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM corresponding to the scan lines which have been previously detected, or may be equal to a predetermined value plus an average of at least two of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM. Of course, the predetermined value may be set to zero. In addition, when the scan-line-direction touch position Y is not detected in the first touch-position sensing step S1, the first touch-position sensing step S1 is repeated. It should be noted that when detecting the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the scan lines and the counter electrode, some of the scan lines can be skipped in the first touch-position sensing step S1, which is depending on the requirement of the application.
In the charging step S2, a voltage signal is charged into each of the data lines needed to be detected after the scan-line-direction touch position Y has been detected. In such a case, the voltage signal causes the RMS voltages between the data lines and the counter electrode to have the same value.
In the second touch-position sensing step S3, the values of liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN formed between the counter electrode and the data lines needed to be detected are detected, respectively, after the voltage signal is charged. Then, a data-line-direction touch position X is detected according to the values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN. In the present embodiment, for example, when the value of a liquid crystal capacitance C1, which is one of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN, corresponding to one of the data lines is greater than a data-line comparing value, the position of this data line is determined as the data-line-direction touch position X. The data-line comparing value may be equal to a predetermined value plus the minimum one of the values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN, or may be equal to a predetermined value plus one of the values of the previously detected liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN corresponding to the data lines which have been previously detected, or may be equal to a predetermined value plus an average of at least two of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN. Of course, the predetermined value may be set to zero. In addition, when the data-line-direction touch position X is not detected in the second touch-position sensing step S3, the first touch-position sensing step S1 is repeated. It should be noted that when detecting the liquid crystal capacitances formed between the data lines and the counter electrode, some of the data lines can be skipped in the second touch-position sensing step S3, which is depending on the requirement of the application.
Accordingly, the scan-line-direction touch position Y and the data-line-direction touch position X indicate the position of the touch point.
With reference to
Next, please refer to
Referring to
The first sensing circuit 21 electrically connects to each of the scan lines G1˜GM, respectively, so as to detect each of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the counter electrode 14 and each of the scan lines G1˜GM. For instance, the liquid crystal capacitance Ck, which is one of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM, is formed between the counter electrode 14 and the scan line Gk, which is one of the scan lines G1˜GM. Then, the scan-line-direction touch position Y is detected according to each of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM. The method for detecting the scan-line-direction touch position Y is described in the above-mentioned embodiment, and it would not be described again hereinafter. Furthermore, when detecting the liquid crystal capacitances, some of the scan lines G1˜GM can be skipped.
The timing control circuit 22 electrically connects to the first sensing circuit 21 and controls the first sensing circuit 21 to detect the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CM formed between the counter electrode 14 and each of the scan lines G1˜GM during the idling time in-between writing periods, in which each of the scan lines turns on sequentially to write image data into the LCD screen.
The voltage-signal generating circuit 23 electrically connects to the timing control circuit 22, and each of the data lines. When the scan-line-direction touch position Y is detected, the timing control circuit 22 controls the voltage-signal generating circuit 23 to charge a voltage signal into each of the data lines needed to be detected.
The second sensing circuit 24 electrically connects to each of the data lines needed to be detected, respectively, and detects values of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN formed between the counter electrode and the data lines needed to be detected after the voltage signal is charged. Then, the data-line-direction touch position X is detected according to the value of each of the liquid crystal capacitances C1˜CN. The method for detecting the data-line-direction touch position X is described in the above-mentioned embodiment, thus its description is omitted in the following. As shown in
Furthermore, to make the detection of the scan-line-direction touch position and data-line-direction touch position easier, and to properly control the touch sensitivity of the TFT-LCD, the TFT-LCD according to the embodiment of the invention may further include a comparing-value setting circuit 25 (as shown in
In summary, since the LCD of the invention directly employs the existing TFT-LCD structure, the addition of a touch plate and controller as mentioned in the related art are unnecessary, and the LCD screen achieves accurate touch position coordination without requiring the conventional accurate adjustment. Furthermore, since the additional touch plate is unnecessary, the light intensity of the LCD is not blocked thereby, thus the brightness of the entire LCD is increased. Moreover, since the additional touch plate is unnecessary, the manufacturing cost of the LCD is reduced.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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91116058 A | Jul 2002 | TW | national |
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4910504 | Eriksson | Mar 1990 | A |
5270711 | Knapp | Dec 1993 | A |
5528267 | Ise | Jun 1996 | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20040150629 A1 | Aug 2004 | US |