Patent Application
20170199663
Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate, generally, to touch sensors including multi-user multi-touch functionality.
Background Art
Projected capacitive touch (PCAP) technology uses electric fields from embedded electrodes projected through glass layers that are influenced by finger touches with the result of changes in measured capacitances. For example, at each “point” or intersection of embedded electrodes, a distinct mutual capacitance change due to touch activity can be measured or “addressed.” PCAP touch sensors are currently found in portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. and are configured to receive multiple concurrent touches from a single person to enable multi-touch functionality.
Embodiments to improve touch sensors are described herein. Some embodiments may provide for a method. The method may include receiving a first sense signal indicating a first touch attributed to a first touch entity and receiving a second sense signal indicating a second touch attributed to a second touch entity. Based on the first sense signal and second sense signal, the method may further include determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity are a common touch entity. Furthermore, the method may include initiating an event in response to determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity.
Some embodiments may include a system including a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The processor may be configured to receive a first sense signal indicating a first touch attributed to a first touch entity and receive a second sense signal indicating a second touch attributed to a second touch entity. Based on the first sense signal and second sense signal, the processor may be further configured to include determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity are a common touch entity. The processor may further be configured to initiate an event in response to determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity.
Some embodiments may include a non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable medium configured to implement the methods and/or other functionality discussed herein. For example, the non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable medium may have instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, causes the at least one computing device to implement the functionality discussed herein.
These as well as additional features, functions, and details of various embodiments are described below. Similarly, corresponding and additional embodiments are also described below.
Having thus described various embodiments in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
Embodiments will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments contemplated herein are shown. Indeed, various embodiments may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
Some embodiments may provide for a projected capacitive (PCAP) touch sensor that supports multi-touch functionality for multiple users at the same time. For multiple touches occurring concurrently, the touch sensor may be configured to determine touches that belong to a common touch entity and initiate a common touch entity interaction mode accordingly for those touches. The touch sensor may also determine that touches belong to different touch entities and may initiate a multi-touch entity interaction mode. For example, in the multi-touch entity interaction mode, multiple common touch entity interaction modes may be initiated for two or more users concurrently.
Touch substrate 102 may be formed of optically transparent material(s), including a laminated stack of transparent materials (such as shown in
Sensing array 104 may define a plurality of sensing axes of touch sensor 100. For example, sensing array 104 may include X axis electrodes that define an X sensing axis and Y axis electrodes that define a Y sensing axis. The X and Y sensing axes are example reference axis that may be used for touch detection, although other (e.g., arbitrary) sensing axes may be used. In some embodiments, electrodes associated with a sensing axis may be oriented perpendicular to the sensing axis direction so that a signal associated with an electrode corresponds to a more-or-less well defined value of the sensing axis coordinate. Where two (e.g., perpendicular and/or otherwise intersecting) sensing axes are used, touch sensor 100 may be referred to herein as an “XY touch sensor.” In various other embodiments, sensing array 104 may define more than two sensing axes, such as XYU (e.g., 3), XYUV (e.g., 4), or more sensing axes. Here “sensing” in “sensing axis” may refer to a reference axis for sensing touches and does not necessarily a connection with sensing (e.g., vs. drive) electronics.
Sensing array 104 may include Y axis electrodes 112a, 112b, 112c and 112d (sometimes referred to herein collectively as “electrodes 112”) and X axis electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c (sometimes referred to herein collectively as “electrodes 114”). For example, each of electrodes 112 and 114 can be line-shaped electrodes that individually span across sensing axes. Other electrode shapes and arrangements may be used, some examples of which are discussed in greater detail below. In some embodiments, sensing array 104 may include one or more electrode substrate layers, such one or more layers of glass or a polymer material such as Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (e.g., substrate layer 116), on which sensing array 104 may be formed (e.g., of indium tin oxide (ITO)). In
Sensing array 104 may be configured to provide sense signals indicating one or more touches, such as to controller 108 and/or other sense electronics. Sensing array 104 may be configured to receive input signals from signal generator 106, which in various embodiments, may be included within controller 108 and/or may be implemented in drive electronics separate from controller 108 (e.g., as shown in
Sensing array 104, via X axis electrodes 114, may be configured to generate sense signals for touch determination. For example, X axis electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be configured to send the sense signals to controller 108 and/or other sense electronics via output lines 122a, 122b and 122c. Here, X axis electrodes 114 may operate in a sense mode and be referred to as “sense electrodes.” For example, X axis electrodes 114 may be conductively isolated from Y axis electrodes 112 such that a mutual capacitance may be formed between Y axis electrodes 112 and Y axis electrodes 114. Furthermore, upon receiving the input signals, Y axis electrodes 112 may configured to generate electromagnetic fields that propagate through touch substrate 102 and interact with one or more touches on touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102. In particular, a touch may cause a detected decrease in mutual capacitance between at least one drive electrode and at least one sense electrode that is present in the sense signals (e.g., as compared with a baseline mutual capacitance between drive and sense electrodes in the absence of a touch), which may be interpreted as a touch location controller 108.
Controller 108 may include circuitry (e.g., one or more processors) configured to execute firmware and/or software programs stored in one or more memory devices to perform the functionality disclosed herein for providing multi-user multi-touch functionality. In some embodiments, controller 108 may interface with a computer system, such as a personal computer, interactive digital signage, multi-user device (e.g., a multi-player gaming table), embedded system, kiosk, user terminal, and/or other machine as a human-to-machine interface device. The computer system may include a main controller with one or more processors configured to execute firmware and/or software programs stored in one or more memory devices. Via the execution of the programs, the computer system may generate a visual component (and/or display element) that is sent to a display device for display. The visual component may include a user interface that is operable using the touch sensor. In various embodiments, controller 108 may be implemented on separate or the same hardware as main controller.
With reference to
During the same sensing cycle, drive electrode 112b may next receive the input signal via input line 118b and drive electrodes 112a, 112c and 112d may be inactivated. Mutual capacitances between drive electrode 112b and each of sense electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be represented in sense signals and sent to controller 108 via output lines 122a, 122b and 122c, respectively. Because there is no touch on touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112b, each of the sense signals on output lines 122a, 122b and 122c may represent the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by blank entries 122b-114a, 122b-114b and 122b-114c within sense signal data matrix 300.
During the same sensing cycle, drive electrode 112c may next receive the input signal via input line 118c and drive electrodes 112a, 112b and 112d may be inactivated. Mutual capacitances between drive electrode 112c and each of sense electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be represented in sense signals and sent to controller 108 via output lines 122a, 122b and 122c, respectively. Because there is no touch on touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112c, each of the sense signals on output lines 122a, 122b and 122c may represent the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by blank entries 122c-114a, 122c-114b and 122c-114c within sense signal data matrix 300.
During the same sensing cycle, drive electrode 112d may next receive the input signal via input line 118d and drive electrodes 112a, 112b and 112c may be inactivated. Mutual capacitances between drive electrode 112d and each of sense electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be represented in sense signals and sent to controller 108 via output lines 122a, 122b and 122c, respectively. Because touch 202 is present on the portion of touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112d and sense electrode 114b, the sense signals on output line 122b may represent a mutual capacitance that is less than the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by “T” entry 112d-114b within sense signal data matrix 300. For example, touch entity circuit equivalent 208 may act as an extension of drive electrode 112c that pulls some of the electrical energy from sensing array 104 to ground 210, thereby decreasing mutual capacitance between drive electrode 112c and sense electrode 112b from the baseline mutual capacitance. Because touch 202 is not present on touch surface 110 at locations corresponding with sense electrodes 114a and 114c, each of the sense signals on output lines 122a and 122c may represent the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by blank entries 112d-114a and 112d-114c within sense signal data matrix 300. Depending on sensing array design, a touch, such as touch 202, may result in multiple non-zero entries such as weak signals in entries 112d-114a, 112c-114b and 112d-114c as well as a strong touch signal in entry 112d-114b. In some embodiments, such secondary weaker signals may be used to provide greater precision in touch location determinations. Nevertheless, for clarity of presentation, such weak secondary signals are neglected in
A touch entity, as used herein, may refer to an individual person and/or two or more people in electrically conductive contact with each other. For example, touch 602 and touch 612 may be generated by a first finger and a second finger, respectively, of an individual person. In another example, touch 602 and touch 612 may be generated by a first finger of a first person and a second finger of a second person where the people are touching each other or otherwise in electrically conductive contact. In either case, the touch entity generating touches 602 and 612 may be represented by touch entity circuit equivalent 604. Touch entity equivalent circuit 604 may include ground capacitor 606, ground switch 608, connection 614, and ground 610. The discussion above regarding touch entity circuit equivalent 204 may be applicable to touch entity equivalent circuit 604. Furthermore, connection 614 may provide electrical conduction between touches 602 and 612 via the touch entity. For example, connection 614 may represent an electrical connection between a first finger (e.g., generating touch 602) and a second finger (e.g., generating touch 612) through the hand/body where the touch entity is an individual. In another example, connection 614 may represent an electrical connection between a finger of a first person and a finger of a second person through the bodies of the first and second people where the touch entity includes the first and second person.
During the same sensing cycle, drive electrode 112d may receive the input signal via input line 118d and drive electrodes 112a, 112b and 112c may be inactivated. Mutual capacitances between drive electrode 112d and each of sense electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be represented in sense signals and sent to controller 108 via output lines 122a, 122b and 122c, respectively. Because touch 602 is present on touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112d and sense electrode 114b, the sense signals on output line 122b may represent a mutual capacitance that is less than the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by “T” entry 112d-114b within sense signal data matrix 700. However, unlike in
Because touches 802, 804 and 806 are from a common touch entity (e.g., touch entity A), circuitry discussed herein can be configured to detect an anti-ghost associated with any two pairs of touches 802, 804 and 806. Upon detecting an anti-ghost associated with a pair of touches from the sense signals received from the sensing array, the circuitry may be further configured to determine that pair of touches “share” an anti-ghost. For example, anti-ghosts 812 and 814 may be determined to be shared by touches 804 and 806, anti-ghosts 816 and 818 may be determined to be shared by touches 802 and 804, and anti-ghosts 820 and 822 may be determined to be shared by touches 802 and 806. Similarly, because touches 808 and 810 are from a common touch entity (e.g., touch entity B), anti-ghosts 824 and 826 may be determined to be shared by touches 808 and 810. As shown in
As shown in sense signal data plot 850, two touches from different touch entities do not share anti-ghosts. For example, no anti-ghost may be detected at intersections 828 and 830 of projections along sensing axes of touch 802 (from touch entity A) and projections along sensing axes of touch 808 (from touch entity B).
Method 900 may begin at 902 and proceed to 904, where the controller may be configured to receive sense signals from a sensing array. The sense signals may indicate a first touch and a second touch occurring concurrently on a touch surface of a touch substrate, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 100. In some embodiments, the sense signals may represent sense signal data acquired during sensing cycles of touch sensor 100. As such, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” on the touch surface when present during a single sensing cycle. For example, the first touch and the second touch may first occur (e.g., begin) simultaneously and may be maintained for the single sensing cycle. Furthermore, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” despite beginning at separate times. For example, the first touch may occur (e.g. begin) prior to the second touch and may be maintained on the touch surface such that the first touch is concurrent with the second touch (e.g., for the single sensing cycle).
At 906, the controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one anti-ghost based on the sense signals. For example, and as discussed above in connection with
In response to the controller determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost, method 900 may proceed to 908, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity. As discussed above, the common touch entity may be an individual person or may be two or more people in electrically conductive contact.
At 910, the controller may be configured to enable a common touch entity interaction mode. For example, the first touch and the second touch may be used to determine a multi-touch capability of touch controller 110 such as pinch to zoom, two-finger scrolling, secondary select, and/or any other suitable multi-touch input. Method 900 may then proceed to 912 and end.
Returning to 906, in response to determining that the first touch and the second touch fail to share the at least one anti-ghost (e.g., do not share any anti-ghosts), method 900 may proceed to 914, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity. For example, the first touch entity may be a first person and the second touch entity may be a second person.
At 916, the controller may be configured to enable a multiple touch-entity interaction mode. For example, the first touch and the second touch may each be used to determine separate single touch capability of touch controller 110. Although method 900 is discussed with respect to two touches, it is appreciated that more than two touches may be detected in the sense signals. For example, a third touch may be detected and share at least one anti-ghost with the first touch and no anti-ghosts with the second touch. Here, common touch entity interaction mode may be enabled for the first and third touch and multiple touch-entity interaction mode be enabled for the second touch and the combination of the first touch and the third touch. In that sense, a multiple touch-entity interaction mode may include two or more separate common touch entity interaction modes. Method 900 may then end at 912.
Method 1000 may begin at 1002 and proceed to 1004, where the controller may be configured to receive sense signals from a sensing array, the sense signals indicating a first touch and a second touch occurring concurrently at a touch surface of a substrate. The discussion above at 904 of method 900 may be applicable at 1004.
At 1006, the controller may be configured to determine that at least one anti-ghost that was undetected in the sense signals when the first touch and the second touch were first detected. For example, the determination at 906 of method 900 may be performed in a first sensing cycle when the first touch and the second touch are initially detected. Here, the first touch and the second touch may be determined to fail to share the at least one anti-ghost, indicating that the first touch and the second touch are associated with different touch entities when the first touch and the second touch were first detected. At 1008, the controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity.
At 1010, the controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one anti-ghost. For example, the first touch and the second touch may be maintained on the touch sensor following the first sensing cycle, such as for several sensing cycles including a second sensing cycle. In the second sensing cycle, the determination at 906 of method 900 may be repeated.
In response to determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost, method 1000 may proceed to 1012, where the controller may be configured associate to the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity, wherein the common touch entity is a first person and a second person in electrically conductive contact. For example, the first person and the second person may have made electrically conductive contact with each other causing the at least one anti-ghost to appear that was not present when the first person and the second person were not in electrically conductive contact at 1006. In some embodiments, a multi-user common touch entity interaction mode may be enabled. For example, the multi-user common touch entity interaction mode may allow the touch sensor to provide inputs (e.g., to a main controller, application, operating system, device, etc.) indicating whether or not users of the common touch entity are touching each other.
At 1014, the controller may be configured to determine a contact time between the first person and the second person based on when the anti-ghost first become detected in the sense signals. For example, the contact time may indicate when the first person and the second person came into electrically conductive contact. Method 1000 may then end at 1016.
Returning to 1010, in response to determining that the first and second touch fail to share the at least one anti-ghost, method 1000 may proceed to 1018, where the controller may be configured to continue to associate the with the first touch entity and the second touch with the second touch entity. As discussed above at 916 of method 900, the controller may further be configured to initiate a multiple touch-entity interaction mode. Method 1000 may then proceed to 1016 and end.
For simplicity and clarity of presentation, the example flow chart of
The discussion above regarding anti-ghosts and when they are detected may not always be applicable, such as when an anti-ghost overlaps (e.g., in location) with a touch. For example, an overlapping anti-ghost may occur when a first touch and a second touch are located along a common sensing axis (e.g., share a common X or Y coordinate on an XY touch sensor).
For example, sensing cycles may be performed as discussed above. Sense electrodes 114a, 114b and 114c may be placed in the sense mode for generating the sense signals. Drive electrode 112a may receive the input signal via input line 118a and drive electrodes 112b, 112c and 112d may be inactivated. Because touch 1106 is detected on touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112a and sense electrode 114c, the sense signals on output line 122c may represent a mutual capacitance that is less than the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by “T” entry 112a-114c within sense signal data matrix 1200. Circuitry may also drive electrical energy from drive electrode 112a through the touch entity via connection 1108 to sense electrode 114c at touch 1104, thereby increasing the mutual capacitance detected at sense electrode 114c relative to the reduced mutual capacitance that would have resulted from touch 1106 alone. In some embodiments, the magnitude of the measured mutual capacitance decrease from touch 1106 may be much larger than the increase in measured mutual capacitance from the anti-ghost effect resulting from connection 1108 and touch 1104. Here, the net effect may be a decreased measured mutual capacitance, or a “T”, for entry 112a-114c despite the contribution from the anti-ghost effect.
Similarly, the increase in mutual capacitance caused by connection 1108 does not cause an anti-ghost at entry 112a-114c within sense signal data matrix 1200, because touch 1104 is also present and overlapping, as shown by “T” entry 112d-114c within sense signal data matrix 1200. For example, within the same sensing cycle, drive electrode 112d may receive the input signal via input line 118d and drive electrodes 112a, 112b and 112c may be inactivated. Because touch 1104 is present on touch surface 110 corresponding with the location of drive electrode 112d and sense electrode 114c, the sense signals on output line 122c may represent a mutual capacitance that is less than the baseline mutual capacitance, as shown by “T” entry 112a-114c within sense signal data matrix 1200. Electrical energy may also be driven from drive electrode 112d through the touch entity via connection 1108 to sense electrode 114c at touch 1106, thereby increasing the detected mutual capacitance of sense electrode 114c relative to the reduced mutual capacitance that would have resulted from touch 1104 alone. The net effect is still a decreased measured mutual capacitance despite the contribution from the anti-ghost effect. Hence, the increase in mutual capacitance caused by connection 1108 does not cause an anti-ghost at entry 112a-114c within sense signal data matrix 1200 because overlapping touch 1106 is also present.
As discussed in greater detail with respect to
Example techniques for detecting overlapping anti-ghosts and, thus, addressing the anti-ghost overlap problems are discussed below. Some techniques may include modifications to controller configurations, the sensing array configurations, and/or sensing electronics configurations. In some embodiments, one or more of the techniques discussed herein may be implemented and/or techniques not explicated discussed herein (e.g., depending on the use requirements of touch controller 100).
Method 1400 may begin at 1402 and proceed to 1404, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity based on detecting the first touch, the second touch, and at least one anti-ghost generated by the sensor, and then determining the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost. The discussion at 908 of method 900 may be applicable at 1404.
At 1406, the controller may be configured to determine a disappearance time for the at least one anti-ghost indicating a length of time that the anti-ghost disappeared while the first touch and the second touch remained detected. For example, the anti-ghost may be determined to have disappeared from the sense signals in a subsequent sensing cycle after a sensing cycle where the at least one anti-ghost was detected. In some embodiments, the disappearance time may be measured beginning at the disappearance of the at least one anti-ghost and ending at the reappearance of the at least one anti-ghost while the first touch and the second touch remained detected throughout.
At 1408, the controller may be configured to determine whether the disappearance time exceeds a continuity threshold. The continuity threshold may represent a predetermined length of time in which the controller may treat disappearance of the at least one anti-ghost as being caused by temporary anti-ghost overlap of moving touches. The continuity threshold may be measured using any suitable means, including a counter, sensor cycles, and/or processor clock cycles.
In response to determining that the disappearance time fails to exceed the continuity threshold, method 1400 may proceed to 1410, where the controller may be configured to continue to associate the first touch and the second touch with the common touch entity within the disappearance time. In some embodiments, temporary disappearance of the at least one anti-ghost may not effect operation of the touch sensor and/or the multi-user mode being implemented. For example, the touch sensor may continue to operate in the common touch entity interaction mode. Method 1400 may then end at 1412. Alternatively or additionally, pairs of touches previously identified as due to a common touch entity may continue indefinitely to be regarded as due to the common touch entity as long as the overlap condition exists (e.g., for which a lack of anti-ghosts is consistent with both common and separate touch entity interpretations of signals). In some embodiments, a pair of touches associated with a common touch entity may be re-interpreted as due to separate touch entities either when a time exceeds a continuity threshold, or when the overlap condition ends without the appearance of anti-ghosts, whichever occurs first.
Returning to 1408, in response to determining that the disappearance time exceeds the continuity threshold, method 1400 may proceed to 1414, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity within the disappearance time. Alternatively and/or additionally, the controller may be configured to determine that the first touch entity and the second touch entity lost electrically conductive contact during the disappearance time, such as when the common touch entity determined at 1404 includes multiple individual people corresponding with the first touch entity and the second touch entity at 1414. Method 1400 may then proceed to 1412 and end.
Method 1500 may begin at 1502 and proceed to 1504, where the controller may be configured to determine that a first touch occurs prior (in time) to a second touch's initial occurrence, and the first touch is maintained on the touch surface such that the first touch is concurrent with the second touch. For example, where sensing cycles are used, the first touch may be detected and the second touch may be undetected in the sense signals in a first sensing cycle. In a subsequent sensing cycle, the first touch may be detected again (e.g., maintained through multiple sensing cycles in some embodiments) concurrently with the second touch.
At 1506, the controller may be configured to determine whether occurrence of the second touch coincided with a signal strength drop of the first touch.
As shown in plot 1650 of
In some embodiments, a coinciding signal strength drop for the first touch may indicate that placement of the second touch has caused the processor to detect a shared anti-ghost that overlaps with the first touch on the sensing array. As discussed above, a touch may cause a detected decrease in mutual capacitance and an anti-ghost may cause a detected increase in mutual capacitance, albeit at a smaller magnitude. As such, when the first touch overlaps with an anti-ghost shared by the first touch and the second touch, the circuitry may detect the anti-ghost and be configured to determine its presence based on an algorithm associated with the relative timing of a signal strength drop (e.g., ΔZ1), such as when the timing of the first touch is determined to have coincided with the occurrence of the second touch. Thus the detection of a signal strength drop (e.g., ΔZ1) provides a means of anti-ghost detection even when a true touch overlaps the position of the anti-ghost.
In response to determining, for example, that the occurrence of the second touch coincided with a signal strength drop associated with the first touch, method 1506 may proceed to 1508, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity based on the first touch and the second touch sharing at least one detected anti-ghost, wherein the presence of the anti-ghost is extrapolated based on the relative timing of the first touch's signal strength drop. The discussion at 908 of method 900 may be applicable at 1508. Method 1500 may then proceed to 1510 and end.
In response to determining that the occurrence of the second touch failed to coincide with a signal strength drop for the first touch, method 1506 may proceed to 1512, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity. In this regard, there may still be a signal strength drop, but that signal strength drop may not be associated with an overlapping anti-ghost, because the timing of the signal strength drop did not sufficiently coincide (in time, clock cycles, and/or signature) with the second touch. The discussion at 914 of method 900 may be applicable at 1512. Method 1500 may then proceed to 1510 and end.
In some embodiments, touches are detected on projected capacitive systems through both mutual capacitance measurements (as described above) as well as self-capacitive measurements. Detection of changes in, or anomalous values of, the ratio of mutual-capacitance signal to self-capacitive signal for a touch may also be used in algorithms for determining whether or not two touches are from the same or different touch entities.
Drive electronics 1702 may be configured to generate input signals to drive each of Y axis electrodes 112, and as such, Y axis electrodes 112 may operate in a drive mode as drive electrodes. In some embodiments, drive electronics 1702 may include signal generator 106 and switch 120, or the like. For example, in a sense cycle, drive electronics 1702 may be configured to send the input signal from signal generator 106 to each of Y axis electrodes 112 (e.g., one at a time). Sense electronics 1704 may be configured to set X axis electrodes 114 to a sense mode (e.g., connect to current or charge sensing virtual grounds) for detecting mutual capacitances associated with touches and/or anti-ghosts. In some embodiments, drive electronics 1702 and/or sense electronics 1704 may implemented via a controller or other suitable circuitry, such as controller 108 shown in
Drive and sense electronics 1808 and 1810 may be configured to selectively perform both drive and sense functions, such as those described herein for drive electronics 1702 and sense electronics 1704 in
Method 1900 may begin at 1902 and proceed to 1904, where a controller of a touch sensor (e.g., touch sensor 1800) may be configured to receive sense signals from a sensing array. The sense signals may indicate a first touch and a second touch occurring concurrently on a touch surface of a touch substrate. The discussion above at 904 of method 900 may be applicable at 1904.
At 1906, the controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch occurred along a sensing axis defined by the sensing array. As discussed above in connection with
In response to determining that the first touch and the second touch occurred along a sensing axis defined by the sensing array, method 1900 may proceed to 1908, where the controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch share a one axis anti-ghost. For example, the controller may be configured to determine whether an anti-ghost signal exists between the first touch and the second touch by using sensing electrodes of one axis only.
For example, the one axis anti-ghost sensing cycle may include switching X axis electrode 1806a (e.g., corresponding with X1 of first touch 2002) to the drive mode and switching X axis electrode 1806b to the sense mode. As shown in
As shown in
Additionally or alternatively, in response to determining the first touch and the second touch occurred along the same X sensing axis, the controller and/or drive and sense electronics may be configured to operate a one axis anti-ghost sensing cycle for the Y axis electrodes to determine whether there is an one-axis anti-ghost that the first touch and the second touch share.
Returning to
In response to determining that the first touch and the second touch fail to share the one axis anti-ghost at 1908, method 1900 may proceed to 1914, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity. Additionally or alternatively, like any method discussed herein, the controller and/or other circuitry could be configured to execute another method for detecting overlapping anti-ghosts before determining that the touches are associated with the same and/or different touch entities. The discussion above at 914 of method 900 may be applicable at 1914. Method 1900 may then proceed to 1912 and end.
Returning to 1906, in response to determining that the first touch and the second touch failed to occur along a sensing axis, method 1900 may proceed to 1912 and end. For example, the one axis anti-ghost measurement may be not initiated. Instead, the controller may be configured to subsequently perform method 900 at 906, where the controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and second touch share at least one anti-ghost based on sense signals (e.g., as generated by sensing cycles). Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, the one axis anti-ghost method may be used as the primary, rather than a secondary, method of associating touches; in this case decision step 1906 of method 1900 may be eliminated so that step 1904 proceeds unconditionally to decision step 1908.
In some embodiments, a touch sensor may include more than two (e.g., XY) sensing axes. Additional sensing axes (e.g., XYU, XYUV, etc.) may allow for reliable anti-ghost overlap resolution for additional (e.g., greater than two) concurrent touches (e.g., such as when a first touch and a second touch are along a first sensing axis and the first touch and a third touch are along a second sensing axis). Furthermore, two touches generated by a common touch entity will share at least one (e.g., non-overlapping) anti-ghost even when the two touches are along a sensing axis.
Drive and sense electronics 2212 can be configured to enable measurement of capacitance and, thus, detect anti-ghosts at XY, XU and YU electrode intersections. For example, if Y axis electrodes 2204 operates only in the drive mode and X axis electrodes 2206 operate only in the sense mode, U axis electrodes 2208 may operate in the drive mode to detect XU anti-ghosts and may operate in the sense mode to detect YU anti-ghosts. As shown, multi-axis touch sensors do not necessarily require drive and sense electronics for each sensing axis to support detection of all one axis anti-ghosts. In general, for a multi-axis touch sensor, one sensing axis may include only drive electronics, one sensing axis may include only sense electronics, and the remaining sensing axis may include drive and sense electronics.
In some embodiments, a touch sensor may include more than four sensing axes.
In some embodiments, a sensing array may include electrode geometries other than the stripe structures shown in
XUV sensing array 2500 may include one or more single layer bridges, such as single layer bridge 2502. Alternatively, multiple layer bridges may be used to make the desired connections, however to minimize manufacturing cost by reducing the number of manufacturing steps, single layer bridge designs may be preferable. At a single layer bridge, two electrodes of the first plurality of electrodes (e.g., X electrodes) may be electrically connected, two electrodes of the second plurality of electrodes (e.g., U electrodes) may be electrically connected, and two electrodes of the third plurality of electrodes may be electrically connected.
Electrodes defining different sensing axes may not be interconnected. Rather, single layer bridge 2502 may be configured to isolate electrodes of different sensing axes from conductive contact via one or more insulating layers. For example, conductive connection 2602 may be isolated from conductive connections 2604 and 2606 by insulating material 2610 and 2608, respectively. Furthermore, conductive connection 2604 may be isolated from conductive connection 2606 by insulating material 2612.
In some embodiments, conductive connections 2602, 2604 and 2606 are disposed such that they do not all intersect at one spatial location, in order to avoid requiring the manufacturing cost of multiple insulating material layers to electrically isolate each of conductive connections 2602, 2604 and 2606 and the intersection (e.g., connection 2602, first insulating material layer, connection 2604, second insulating material layer, and connection 2606). Rather, by spatially separating the intersections the conductive connections, a single layer of insulating material may be used. For example insulating materials 2608, 2610 and 2612 may define a thickness of the single layer of insulating material. As such, touch sensor thickness, manufacturing complexity (e.g., number of layering steps), and production costs may be reduced.
Method 2700 may begin at 2702 and proceed to 2704, where a first conductive connection between a first electrode and a second electrode may be formed. The first electrode and the second electrode may define a first sensing axis of a sensing array. For example, conductive connection 2602 (e.g., as shown in
At 2706, a partial conductive connection of a third electrode may be formed. The third electrode may define a second sensing axis. For example, partial conductive connection 2604a of conductive connection 2604 of V axis electrode 2510 may be formed, where V axis electrode 2510 may define the V sensing axis. However, the other portion of conductive connection 2604, namely partial conducive connection 2604b, is not be formed at 2607. In some embodiments, steps 2704 and 2706 may be performed during one and the same manufacturing step in order to minimize the number of manufacturing steps.
At 2708, a single insulating layer may be formed. The single insulating layer may electrically isolate the first conductive connection and the partial conductive connection of the third electrode, such as from other conductive connections formed on top of the single insulating layer. For example, the single insulating layer may include one or more insulating materials 2608, 2610 and 2612 that may define a thickness of the single layer of insulating material. In some embodiments, each of the one or more insulating materials may be formed in a single placement step.
At 2710, a partial conductive connection of a fourth electrode may be formed. The partial conductive connection of the fourth electrode may be electrically connected with the partial conductive connection of the third electrode, thereby forming a second conductive connection between the third electrode and fourth electrode defining the second sensing axis. For example, partial conductive connection 2604b of conductive connection 2604 of V axis electrode 2508 may be formed such that V axis electrodes 2508 and 2510 are connected via conductive connection 2604. V axis electrodes 2508 and 2510 may define the V sensing axis.
At 2712, a third conductive connection of a fifth electrode and sixth electrode may be formed. The fifth electrode and the sixth electrode defining a third sensing axis. For example, conductive connection 2606 of U axis electrodes 2512 and 2514 may be formed, where U axis electrodes 2512 and 2414 define the U sensing axis. Method 2700 may then proceed to 2714 and end. In some embodiments, steps 2710 and 2712 may be performed in the same manufacturing step in order to minimize the number of manufacturing steps.
The X axis electrodes and the Y axis electrodes may be interconnected to form the X and Y sensing axis via single layer bridges, such as single layer bridge 2806.
In some embodiments, a sensing array with multiple electrode substrate layers may include one or more bordered electrodes.
In some embodiments, a sensing array may be formed of conductive mesh electrodes rather than electrodes formed of continuous coatings.
The touch sensors discussed herein may be leveraged in virtually any context or embodiment in which multiple users simultaneously operate a touch screen.
Advantageously, some embodiments may support multi-touch functionality for multiple users at the same time.
As shown in
In some embodiments, a touch sensor and/or application (e.g., for interaction via the touch sensor) may be configured to identify a user based on a first touch and to receive touch inputs (e.g., for application interaction) via other concurrent touches of the user.
Other examples of user touch identification may include a multi-user shopping cart application. For example, the display of an interactive digital signage may show a number of images and/or icons for items that can be purchased. A user may put an item into their shopping cart by touching a desired item with a first touch (e.g., using hand) and concurrently touching the user's shopping cart (e.g., icon) with a second touch (e.g., using the other hand). Advantageously, multiple users may operate the touch sensor and their touches may be identified based on shared anti-ghosts for concurrent touches without having to split the display or touch area into designated areas for each user.
In some embodiments, as discussed above in connection with
In some embodiments, the touch sensor may be leveraged in applications that require two people to be present, such as for safety and/or security reasons. For example, the touch controller may be part of a building directory interactive digital signage (IDS) application in a building with an unsupervised swimming pool with a safety policy that no one is allowed to use the pool alone. In addition to written messages stating the safety policy on the IDS display and elsewhere, an IDS application may go a step further and not give directions and/or access to the swimming pool until two people simultaneously touch the IDS touchscreen (e.g., at least two touches that do not share any anti-ghosts). While solo swimmers may be tempted to simultaneously touch with two or more fingers in an attempt to satisfy the multi-touch IDS application, the IDS application can be configured to generate and then detect anti-ghosts, which may in turn be used to indicate touches from the same user (e.g., any two of the touches share at least one anti-ghost). In another example, an IDS access application with the ability to unlock a door (e.g., of a bank, warehouse or other facility storing high-value items) may be programmed to do so only if two users (e.g., employees) simultaneously request entry.
In some embodiments, special codes may be used that take advantage of anti-ghosts, such as for providing added security.
Some embodiments may provide for multiple touch sensors that support multi-touch functionality for multiple users at the same time. For multiple touches occurring concurrently on the different touch sensors, the touch sensors may be configured to determine touches that belong to a common touch entity and initiate a common touch entity interaction mode accordingly for those touches. The touch sensors may also determine that touches belong to different touch entities and may initiate a multi-touch entity interaction mode. For example, in the multi-touch entity interaction mode, multiple common touch entity interaction modes may be initiated for two or more users concurrently.
In
For clarity of presentation, electrodes in
Referring to
In an embodiment, anti-ghost 4020 may be determined to be shared by touches 4010 and 4012 by detecting anti-ghost 4020 along a sense line shared with touch 4012. For example, the electronics of touch sensor 4006 can be driving the X electrode indicated by the dashed vertical line running through 4010, and the electronics of touch sensor 4004 can be driving the X electrode indicated by the vertical dashed line running through anti-ghost 4020. This will result in the anti-ghost signal 4020 appearing on the indicated horizontal sense line that associated electronics will associate with the position indicated at anti-ghost 4020. If the drive signal oscillation of the lower left electronics is in phase with the drive signals of the upper right electronics, the touch will produce anti-ghost 4020. If the two sets of electronics happen to be exactly or substantially 180° out of phase, then it may be determined that there is a ghost, but not an anti-ghost, at the location of anti-ghost 4020. More generally, touch sensor 4004 may be subjected to extra measurable electronic noise or interference when measuring mutual capacitance at the position of anti-ghost 4020. This extra measurable electronic noise or interference, when detected along the sense line shared with touch 4012, can indicate that touches 4010 and 4012 are by a common touch entity.
Because touch sensors 4002, 4004, 4006, and 4008 in
In some embodiments, drive signals from touch sensor 4004 can pass through the common touch entity to sense electrodes (not shown) in touch sensor 4006 resulting in a measured location of electronic noise or interference that can drift randomly along a common sense line with touch 4010, e.g. at a position along horizontal electrodes under the touch 4010.
Referring to
In the example of
In an embodiment, anti-ghost 4022 is determined to be shared by touches 4014 and 4016 by detecting anti-ghost 4022 along a sense line shared with touch 4014, by detecting anti-ghost 4024 along a sense line shared with touch 4016, or both. Touch sensors 4004 and 4006 are synchronized so that when a line on touch sensor 4004's X axis is driven, a corresponding line on touch sensor 4006 is driven at the same location on the X axis. For example,
As shown in
As shown in sense signal data plot 4050, two touches from different touch entities do not share anti-ghosts. For example, no anti-ghost may be detected at intersection 4026 of projections along sX axis from touch 4018 (from touch entity B) and projections along Y axis along the driven line on touch sensor 4004 corresponding to the driven line of touch 4014 (from touch entity A). Similarly, there is no anti-ghost detected on touch sensor 4006 at the intersection 4028 of projections along X axis of touch 4014 (from touch entity A) and projections along Y axis along the driven line on touch sensor 4006 corresponding to the driven line of touch 4018 (from touch entity B).
In an embodiment, using appropriate synchronization methods, the principles of multi-user anti-ghost PCAP can be extended from single touch sensor to tiled arrays of touch sensors. The presence or absence of anti-ghosts at predictable locations can be used to determine when pairs of touches electrically connected. Further, the principles above are independent of the geometry of the tiling. The tiling “array” could be a horizontal row of touch sensors, a vertical row of touch sensors, or a “tiling” can be a set of touch sensors placed in any configuration, e.g. at arbitrary or random locations on the walls of room.
Method 4100 may begin at 4102 and proceed to 4104, where the shared controller may be configured to receive a first sense signal from a first sensing array. The first sense signal may indicate a first touch on a first touch surface of a first touch substrate, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 4004. At 4106, the shared controller may be configured to receive a second sense signal from a second sensing array. The second sense signal may indicate a second touch occurring concurrently to the first touch on a second touch surface of a second touch substrate, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 4006.
In some embodiments, the sense signals may represent sense signal data acquired during sensing cycles of touch sensors 4004 and 4006. As such, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” on their respective touch surfaces when present during a single sensing cycle. For example, the first touch and the second touch may first occur (e.g., begin) simultaneously and may be maintained for the single sensing cycle. Furthermore, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” despite beginning at separate times. For example, the first touch may occur (e.g. begin) on the first touch surface prior to the second touch on the second touch surface and may be maintained on the first touch surface such that the first touch is concurrent with the second touch (e.g., for the single sensing cycle).
At 4108, the shared controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one anti-ghost based on the first and second sense signals. For example, and as discussed above in connection with
In response to the controller determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost, method 4100 may proceed to 4110, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity. As discussed above, the common touch entity may be an individual person or may be two or more people in electrically conductive contact.
At 4112, the controller may be configured to enable a common touch entity interaction mode. For example, the first touch and the second touch may be used to determine a multi-touch capability of the shared controller such as pinch to zoom, two-finger scrolling, secondary select, and/or any other suitable multi-touch input. Method 4100 may then proceed to 4114 and end.
Returning to 4108, in response to determining that the first touch and the second touch fail to share the at least one anti-ghost (e.g., do not share any anti-ghosts), method 4100 may proceed to 4116, where the shared controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity. For example, the first touch entity may be a first person and the second touch entity may be a second person.
At 4118, the controller may be configured to enable a multiple touch-entity interaction mode. For example, the first touch and the second touch may each be used to determine separate single touch capability of shared controller. Although method 4100 is discussed with respect to two touches, it is appreciated that more than two touches may be detected in the sense signals. For example, a third touch may be detected and share at least one anti-ghost with the first touch and no anti-ghosts with the second touch. Here, common touch entity interaction mode may be enabled for the first and third touch and multiple touch-entity interaction mode be enabled for the second touch and the combination of the first touch and the third touch. In that sense, a multiple touch-entity interaction mode may include two or more separate common touch entity interaction modes. Method 4100 may then end at 4114.
In an embodiment, one or more techniques for monitoring the continuity of anti-ghosts are used with multiple touch sensors that support multi-touch functionality for multiple users. For example, method 1400 can be executed to determine, at least partially, whether a second touch belongs to the same touch entity as the first touch if it is not readily discernable two touches of a common touch entity share at least one anti-ghost when the two touches first become concurrent on the touch surface, such as but not limited to when multiple anti-ghosts appear in tiled touch sensors running asynchronously. In some embodiments, method 1400 may be performed by a controller and/or other suitably configured circuitry, such as a shared controller or controller 108 of touch sensor 100 shown in
In an embodiment, one or more techniques for providing multi-user multi-touch functionality based on signal strength of touches are used with multiple touch sensors that support multi-touch functionality for multiple users. For example, method 1500 can be executed to, at least partially, resolve the detection of touches associated with the same touch entity despite not detecting anti-ghosts due to the anti-ghosts overlapping with the touches or not being able to determine that an anti-ghost corresponds to which of one or more touches. For example, method 1500 may be helpful when a first touch occurs prior to a second touch and is maintained on the touch surface such that the first touch is concurrent with the second touch. Independent of whether there is a potential anti-ghost overlap or not, the method 1500 may be performed to determine whether or not the second touch belongs to the same touch entity as the first touch. In that sense, method 1500 may be performed in response to the second touch being determined as being along a common sensing axis direction as the first touch and/or when the first touch occurs prior to the second touch regardless of whether the first touch and the second touch are along a common sensing axis. In some embodiments, like other methods discussed herein, method 1500 may be performed by a controller and/or other suitably configured circuitry, such as a shared controller or controller 108 of touch sensor 100 shown in
Some embodiments may provide for one or more touch sensors that support multi-touch interactions between multiple users at the same time. For multiple touches occurring concurrently on the same or different touch sensors, the one or more touch sensors may be configured to determine that multiple touch entities form a common touch entity and initiate an event for those interactions.
Method 4200 may begin at 4202 and proceed to 4204, where a shared controller may be configured to receive a first sense signal indicating a first touch attributed to a first touch entity. The first touch can be from a first touch surface of a first touch substrate, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 100 or of touch sensor 4004.
At 4206, the shared controller may be configured to receive a second sense signal indicating a second touch attributed to a second touch entity. The second touch may occur concurrently to the first touch on the same or a different touch surface, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 100 or touch sensor 4006.
In some embodiments, the sense signals may represent sense signal data acquired during sensing cycles of touch sensors. As such, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” on their respective touch surfaces when present during a single sensing cycle. For example, the first touch and the second touch may first occur (e.g., begin) simultaneously and may be maintained for the single sensing cycle. Furthermore, the first touch and the second touch may occur “concurrently” despite beginning at separate times. For example, the first touch may occur (e.g. begin) on the first touch surface prior to the second touch on the second touch surface and may be maintained on the first touch surface such that the first touch is concurrent with the second touch (e.g., for the single sensing cycle).
At 4208, the shared controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity. The first touch entity and the second touch entity can be determined to form a common touch entity using any approach, such as any of the techniques discussed herein, but not limited thereto. For example, the first and second touch entities can be determined to form a common touch entity based on the presence or absence of anti-ghosts, the timing of touches, sensed signal strength of touches, or any combination thereof.
In response to the controller determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity, method 4200 may proceed to 4210, where the controller may be configured to initiate an event. Method 4200 may then proceed to 4212 and end.
In some embodiments, the event comprises transferring a virtual object from the first touch entity to the second touch entity. The following provides non-limiting examples of transferring a virtual object form the first touch entity to the second touch entity.
As an example, the first touch entity and second touch entity can be playing a multiplayer game, such as soccer. In the game, the first touch entity may be represented by an avatar, e.g. a first soccer player, and the second touch entity may be represented by another avatar, e.g. a second soccer player. Each touch entity may control the avatar by touching some control area, e.g. a portion of a touch screen or the avatar on the touch screen. The first touch entity can initiate transferring an in game object, e.g. passing a soccer ball, to the second touch entity by touching the second touch entity, e.g. a tap on the shoulder with the first touch entity's free hand. When a controller determines that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity, the controller can send a signal to the game to initiate the transfer. For example, in the game this translates to the first avatar attempting to pass the soccer ball to the second avatar. Although soccer is used in this example, embodiments of the invention support any game, such as football, hockey, etc.
As another example, the first touch entity and second touch entity can be interacting with data in a GUI (graphical user interface), such as different applications in a windowing system. In the GUI, the first touch entity may be highlighting data in a spreadsheet application using a first touch. The second touch entity may be highlighting a data entry field in a second application using the second touch. The first touch entity can initiate transferring the data from the spreadsheet to the second application by touching the second touch entity, e.g. by tapping the second touch entity on the shoulder. When a controller determines that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity, the controller can send a signal to the GUI to initiate the transfer. As a result, the highlighted data is copied from the spreadsheet application to the second application. In this example, the formed common touch entity may be temporary and revert to separate first and second touch entities when the triggered actions are completed and electrical contact between the first and second touch entities is terminated.
In some embodiments, the event comprises assigning a designation of the first touch entity to the second touch entity. The designation can indicate that the entities are a part of the same team, unit, organization, side, etc. For example, a user on a first team of a game can tag a second user to indicated that the second user is on the first team.
In some embodiments, the shared controller may be configured to determine that the first touch entity and the second touch entity have stopped forming a common touch entity based on the first sense signal and second sense signal. The first touch entity and the second touch entity can be determined to have stopped forming a common touch entity using any approach, such as any of the techniques discussed herein, but not limited thereto. For example, the first and second touch entities can be determined to have stopped forming a common touch entity based on the presence or absence of anti-ghosts, the timing of touches, sensed signal strength of touches, or any combination thereof. In response to determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity have stopped forming a common touch entity, the shared controller may be configured to initiate a second event.
In some embodiments, the second event comprises maintaining an association of the first touch entity and the second touch entity after the first touch entity and second touch entity separate. The association, like a designation, can indicate that the entities are a part of the same team, unit, organization, side, etc. For example, referring back to the example of assigning a designation, if the first and second touch entities separate and stop forming a common touch entity, the first and second touch entities can both be designated as members of the same team.
In some embodiments, the shared controller may be configured to receive a third sense signal indicating a third touch attributed to a third touch entity. Based on the third sense signal and second sense signal, the shared controller may be configured to determine that the third touch entity and the second touch entity form a second common touch entity. In response to determining that the third touch entity and the second touch entity form the second common touch entity, the shared controller may be configured to initiate a third event. The third event can include, for example, transferring a virtual object from the second touch entity to the third touch entity, assigning a designation of the third touch entity to the second touch entity, maintaining an association of the second touch entity or third touch entity, or any combination thereof.
In some embodiments, the association of touches is tracked using touch group identifiers. A touch group entity identifier may be assigned for each touch. The touch group entity identifier may be unique. For example, the touch group entity identifier may be implemented using a unique 32 bit integer number. The touch group entity identifier may be assigned to one or more touches that belong to a same owner group identity. For example, a group of touches that have strong PCAP anti-ghost presence between any two of them, such as touches from one or more people identified as belonging to a common touch entity, can belong to a same touch group entity. As another example, a single touch which does not have any anti-ghost or might have noise level anti-ghost presence, such as a single touch from a single touch entity, can have its own unique touch group entity identification.
In some embodiments, different touch group entities can join to become one touch-group-entity by making a new physical contact between at least one of the members of these different touch group entities. Similarly, when two or more touch entities get separated by removing a physical contact, these touch group entities can each become a new touch group entity. Alternatively, when two or more touch entities are separated by removing a physical contact, one resulting touch entity may inherit the existing group entity and the other touch entities may form new group entities.
In some embodiments, the touch group entity group and its identification exists while at least one touch that belongs to the group is touching the screen. While the touch group entity group exists, the touches that belong to the touch group entity can disappear from the group by lifting those touches from the screen and new touches can be added to the touch group entity by additional touches with a strong physical connection to the touch group entity are made. In some cases, a weak anti-ghosting signal may be observed with two users in close proximity but not actually touching; this may be due to drive signal transfer between the users due to a small capacitive coupling between the two users. In an embodiment, if it is desired to only associate the two users when they are in true physical contact, it may be required that the anti-ghost signal be sufficiently strong. As it is common in the touch industry to refer to the strength of a touch signal as the “Z” coordinate or value of the touch, it is natural to associate a Z value with the strength of an anti-ghost signal. The strength of physical connection is recognized, for example, through the value of the Z value of the anti-ghost points between touches that exceed a specified threshold.
In some embodiments, each touch can have a unique contact identifier during the period a touch is made to the screen until the touch is lifted from the screen. A touch can also have a touch group entity identifier. The contact identifier can be given to a newly sensed touch. Touches that are not new but continuous, which can be determined through examining the existing valid touch history by one or more techniques, inherits the touch group identifier and contact identifier from the previous valid touch that it was identified with. New touches that have a strong anti-ghost relationship with any of the touches that with the existing touch can inherit the touch group identifier of the existing touch.
In some embodiments, when a touch panel scans the touch input, the controller determines the touch groups, and a data structure (e.g. an array) that identifies the correspondence of touches to touch groups is passed to next iteration for processing these data. The initial iteration of data processing may include grouping the touch data into touch groups, e.g. by identifying common touch entities. For example, the data structure can be processed into physical cluster peak touches by examining anti-ghost presence of two peaks at a time, and if there is a strong physical connection of two touch peaks, they will be clustered into the same cluster group; if one of belongs to a physical cluster, the other will inherit the same cluster. If neither of the two touches have any cluster associated with, a new physical cluster identification, e.g. touch group entity identifier, can be assigned to these two touches. A touch peak data that does not have any anti-ghost relationship will have a new touch group entity identifier assigned to it. After all of the pairs of peaks have been examined, all the touches will be clustered.
In some embodiments, in subsequent iterations of processing the data structure, the data structure from the previous iteration, alone or as a part of a touch history table, can be examined to identify to which group the touch belongs. For example, with an already existing touch, if a peak is identified with an existing touch, all the touches that belong to the same cluster will inherit this touch group entity identifier. If a peak from the same cluster is traced into an existing touch, and if the peak one belongs to a different touch group entity in the touch history, the earlier created touch group entity identifier (such as a smaller valued integer value) can be assigned as a primary group entity, but the differing group entity identification can be also stored as a previous touch group entity. This earlier created touch group identifier can also be assigned to the rest of the cluster. For new touches, a new touch entry table is generated and put into the touch history table. For a new cluster, a new touch group entity can be assigned to the touches in the cluster.
Touch Sensors with Additional Input
In some embodiments, a touch sensor may be combined with another input system, such as a visual input system (e.g. including one or more cameras), which may include three dimensional tracking capabilities. The other input system may be configured to track the movements of users to further associate users with touches. For example, when a first touch and a second touch are not concurrent in time, the first touch and the second touch will not share any anti-ghosts regardless of whether they were generated by a common touch entity or different touch entities. As such, a touch sensor that is configured to associate touches based on anti-ghosts may be combined with the other input system to associate concurrent touches and touches that are separated in time.
Method 4300 may begin at 4302 and proceed to 4304, where controller 108 may be configured to receive a first entity characteristic corresponding to a first touch. A first sense signal may indicate the first touch on a first touch surface of a first touch substrate, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 100. At 4306, the shared controller may be configured to receive a second entity characteristic corresponding to a second touch. A second sense signal may indicate the second touch not occurring concurrently to the first touch on the touch surface, such as touch surface 110 of touch substrate 102 of touch sensor 100. The first touch and the second touch do not occur concurrently on their respective touch surfaces when they are both not present during any sensing cycles. For example, the first touch can occur during a first time period, and after the first touch ends, the second touch may first occur.
In some embodiments, the entity characteristics may represent data acquired from one or more sources. An entity characteristic may refer to any attribute that can be used to distinguish one touch entity from another. For example, an entity characteristic can include, but is not limited to, a name, an identifier, the color of an item worn, a face, a user's size, a user's physical capabilities, a user's age, a type of input device (e.g., a gloved finger, a bare finger, a stylus, a mobile handheld computing device, etc.), a number of users, or any combination thereof. The one or more sources can include, for example, a sensor, a camera, a video, an image source, a RFID reader, a near-field communication device, a microphone, ultrasonic receiver, such as sonar, an electromagnetic sensor, such as LIDAR, or any combination thereof.
At 4308, the shared controller may be configured to determine whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one entity characteristic based on the first and second entity characteristics. For example, both entity characteristics may be that the user is wearing blue glasses.
In response to the controller determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one entity characteristic, method 4300 may proceed to 4310, where the controller may be configured to associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity. As discussed above, the common touch entity may be an individual person or may be two or more people in electrically conductive contact.
At 4312, the controller may be configured to enable a common touch entity interaction mode. For example, the second touch may be used to continue an interaction previously engaged in using the first touch, such as drawing a picture. Method 4300 may then proceed to 4314 and end.
Returning to 4308, in response to determining that the first touch and the second touch fail to share the at least one entity characteristic, method 4300 may proceed to 4316, where the shared controller may be configured to associate the first touch with a first touch entity and the second touch with a second touch entity different from the first touch entity. For example, the first touch entity may be a first person and the second touch entity may be a second person.
At 4318, the controller may be configured to enable a multiple touch-entity interaction mode. For example, the first touch and the second touch may each be used to determine separate single touch capability of shared controller. Although method 4300 is discussed with respect to two touches, it is appreciated that more than two touches may be detected in the sense signals. For example, a third touch may be detected and share at least one anti-ghost with the first touch and no anti-ghosts with the second touch. Here, common touch entity interaction mode may be enabled for the first and third touch and multiple touch-entity interaction mode be enabled for the second touch and the combination of the first touch and the third touch. In that sense, a multiple touch-entity interaction mode may include two or more separate common touch entity interaction modes. Method 4300 may then end at 4314.
In state 4400, touch sensor 4402 associates the two touches of the user 4404 and responds with the same color for the user 4404's right and left hands. User 4404 may have blue glasses, and the color of the trails drawn by user 4404 may match the color. The blue glasses are an entity characteristic detected by a camera associated with touch sensor 4402. Touch sensor 4402 can associate user 4404's touches based on anti-ghosts detected on touch sensor 4402. In contrast, touch sensor 4402 may display the touch from user 4406 a different paint color based on, for example, a lack of anti-ghosts that indicates the touches belong to a separate touch entity. In this example, user 4406 has red glasses, and the paint color of the marks left by 4406 is also red (red marks being represented in
State 4440 represents a time after state 4400, by which time user 4406 had walked away from touch sensor 4402, and user 4404 had moved to the right side of touch sensor 4402. Further, a new user 4408 with purple glasses has walked up to the left side of touch sensor 4402.
In state 4480, user 4404 starts drawing on touch sensor 4402 again by touching it. Using the anti-ghost effect alone, touch sensor 4402 may not be able to determine that the upper right touch during state 4480 is from user 4404. However, by tracking the movements of the users with a camera system, the touch sensor 4402 can recognize the touch is from user 4404 and provide the paint color consistent with user 4404's earlier touches. The camera system can also recognize that the user 4408 is a new user and provide a new paint color accordingly (represented in
In an embodiment, touch sensor 4402 is configured to determine a paint color for each user. For example, touch sensor 4402 can receive a color selection from the user, such as by the user selected the color by first touching a virtual paint can. Alternatively or additionally, touch sensor 4402 can be configured to select the color based on an entity characteristic, such as eye color or shirt color, of the camera image of the user.
In some embodiments, the strength of the anti-ghost signals are a side effect of projected-capacitive touch system design decisions made with other considerations in mind. In other embodiments, projected-capacitive touch systems may be designed in a way to enhance the strength of anti-ghost signals relative to touch signals. Electrostatic simulations may be used to test various ideas for design alternations.
In some embodiments, reducing the user's capacitance to ground (CGROUND) increases the anti-ghost signal. Techniques to increase the anti-ghost signal can include, for example, reducing thickness or increasing the dielectric constant of selected dielectric layers, such as the exterior layer, of the touch sensor stack.
In some embodiments, although touch-to-electrode coupling to both sense and drive lines are important to the anti-ghost signal, only the touch-to-electrode coupling to sense lines contributes to undesired electronic noise. Thus, to improve the strength of anti-ghost signals, sense electrode may be designed to so that user capacitive coupling to sense electrodes (CSENSE) is less than user capacitive coupling to drive electrodes (CDRIVE). This relationship may be represented by the equation CSENSE<CDRIVE.
Sensing array 4500 includes sense electrodes 4502 and 4504 and drive electrodes 4506 and 4508. Although two sense and two drive electrodes are shown, embodiments of the invention support any number or combination of sense or drive electrodes. By removing centers of the sense electrodes 4502 and 4504, noise from self-capacitive coupling to the user is reduced.
Sensing array 4510 includes sense electrodes 4512 and 4514 and drive electrodes 4516 and 4518. Although two sense and two drive electrodes are shown, embodiments of the invention support any number or combination of sense or drive electrodes. The hypocycloidal shape of sense electrodes 4512 and 4514 paired with the circular shape of drive electrodes 4516 and 4518 produce a geometry that leaves touch-induced mutual capacitance roughly the same due to the similar boundary lengths between the sense and drive electrodes. This arrangement can also decrease noise by reducing CSENSE, but also leaves the anti-ghost signal strength roughly the same by compensating the decreased CSENSE by increasing CDRIVE by increasing the area of drive electrodes 4516 and 4518.
Sensing array 4520 includes sense electrodes 4522, 4524, and 4526 and drive electrodes 4528, 4530, and 4532. Although three sense and three drive electrodes are shown, embodiments of the invention support any number or combination of sense or drive electrodes. The design of sensing array 4520 may be well suited for designs in which the increase in surface area of drive electrodes 4528, 4530, and 4532 relative to sense electrodes 4522, 4524, and 4526 produces the relationship CSENSE<CDRIVE.
In an embodiment, sensing arrays 4500, 4510, and 4520 may each be implemented with a variety of transparent electrode materials including, for example, indium tin oxide (ITO), silver nanowires, carbon nanotubes as well as metal-mesh.
In some embodiments, the anti-ghosts are measured in the same mutual-capacitance scan as the touches themselves. Alternatively or additionally, two or more scans may be used, in which at least one scan is configured to collect touch data, such as with the anti-ghosts minimized, and in which at least one other scan is configured to collect anti-ghost data, such as measuring anti-ghosts between parallel electrodes.
Various embodiments can be implemented, for example, using one or more well-known computer systems, such as computer system 4600 shown in
Computer system 4600 includes one or more processors (also called central processing units, or CPUs), such as a processor 4604. Processor 4604 is connected to a communication infrastructure or bus 4606.
One or more processors 4604 may each be a graphics processing unit (GPU). In an embodiment, a GPU is a processor that is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly process mathematically intensive applications on electronic devices. The GPU may have a highly parallel structure that is efficient for parallel processing of large blocks of data, such as mathematically intensive data common to computer graphics applications, images and videos.
Computer system 4600 also includes user input/output device(s) 4603, such as monitors, keyboards, pointing devices, etc., which communicate with communication infrastructure 4606 through user input/output interface(s) 4602.
Computer system 4600 also includes a main or primary memory 4608, such as random access memory (RAM). Main memory 4608 may include one or more levels of cache. Main memory 4608 has stored therein control logic (i.e., computer software) and/or data.
Computer system 4600 may also include one or more secondary storage devices or memory 4610. Secondary memory 4610 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 4612 and/or a removable storage device or drive 4614. Removable storage drive 4614 may be a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, a compact disk drive, an optical storage device, tape backup device, and/or any other storage device/drive.
Removable storage drive 4614 may interact with a removable storage unit 4618. Removable storage unit 4618 includes a computer usable or readable storage device having stored thereon computer software (control logic) and/or data. Removable storage unit 4618 may be a floppy disk, magnetic tape, compact disk, DVD, optical storage disk, and/any other computer data storage device. Removable storage drive 4614 reads from and/or writes to removable storage unit 4618 in a well-known manner.
According to an exemplary embodiment, secondary memory 4610 may include other means, instrumentalities or other approaches for allowing computer programs and/or other instructions and/or data to be accessed by computer system 4600. Such means, instrumentalities or other approaches may include, for example, a removable storage unit 4622 and an interface 4620. Examples of the removable storage unit 4622 and the interface 4620 may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM or PROM) and associated socket, a memory stick and USB port, a memory card and associated memory card slot, and/or any other removable storage unit and associated interface.
Computer system 4600 may further include a communication or network interface 4624. Communication interface 4624 enables computer system 4600 to communicate and interact with any combination of remote devices, remote networks, remote entities, etc. (individually and collectively referenced by reference number 4628). For example, communication interface 4624 may allow computer system 4600 to communicate with remote devices 4628 over communications path 4626, which may be wired and/or wireless, and which may include any combination of LANs, WANs, the Internet, etc. Control logic and/or data may be transmitted to and from computer system 4600 via communication path 4626.
In an embodiment, a tangible apparatus or article of manufacture comprising a tangible computer useable or readable medium having control logic (software) stored thereon is also referred to herein as a computer program product or program storage device. This includes, but is not limited to, computer system 4600, main memory 4608, secondary memory 4610, and removable storage units 4618 and 4622, as well as tangible articles of manufacture embodying any combination of the foregoing. Such control logic, when executed by one or more data processing devices (such as computer system 4600), causes such data processing devices to operate as described herein.
Based on the teachings contained in this disclosure, it will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) how to make and use the invention using data processing devices, computer systems and/or computer architectures other than that shown in
It is to be appreciated that the Detailed Description section, and not the Summary and Abstract sections (if any), is intended to be used to interpret the claims. The Summary and Abstract sections (if any) may set forth one or more but not all exemplary embodiments of the invention as contemplated by the inventor(s), and thus, are not intended to limit the invention or the appended claims in any way.
While the invention has been described herein with reference to exemplary embodiments for exemplary fields and applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Other embodiments and modifications thereto are possible, and are within the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, and without limiting the generality of this paragraph, embodiments are not limited to the software, hardware, firmware, and/or entities illustrated in the figures and/or described herein. Further, embodiments (whether or not explicitly described herein) have significant utility to fields and applications beyond the examples described herein.
Embodiments have been described herein with the aid of functional building blocks illustrating the implementation of specified functions and relationships thereof. The boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of the description. Alternate boundaries can be defined as long as the specified functions and relationships (or equivalents thereof) are appropriately performed. Also, alternative embodiments may perform functional blocks, steps, operations, methods, etc. using orderings different than those described herein.
References herein to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” or similar phrases, indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it would be within the knowledge of persons skilled in the relevant art(s) to incorporate such feature, structure, or characteristic into other embodiments whether or not explicitly mentioned or described herein.
The breadth and scope of the invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
This application is a continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 15/076,100 (Attorney Docket No. 3450.0060002), filed Mar. 21, 2016, titled “MULTI-USER MULTI-TOUCH PROJECTED CAPACITANCE TOUCH SENSOR,” which is a continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 14/322,605 (Atty. Docket No. 3450.0060001), filed Jul. 2, 2014, titled “MULTI-USER MULTI-TOUCH PROJECTED CAPACITANCE TOUCH SENSOR,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/843,850 (Atty. Docket No. 3450.0060000), filed Jul. 8, 2013, titled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR MULTI-USER MULTI-TOUCH PROJECTED CAPACITANCE TOUCH SENSOR,” the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61843850 | Jul 2013 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15076100 | Mar 2016 | US |
| Child | 15470040 | US | |
| Parent | 14322605 | Jul 2014 | US |
| Child | 15076100 | US |
