Patent Application
20160034106
This application claims the priority benefit of China application serial no. 201410364505.6, filed on Jul. 29, 2014. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic device, and particularly relates to a touch apparatus and a touch sensing method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, the technology of optical touch control is implemented by disposing a light source and an optical sensor at the edge of a screen. The light source emits a light beam to scan a touch area, and the optical sensor is configured to sense a part of the light beam reflected by a touch tool (e.g., the user's finger or a touch pen). A touch position is then determined based on a sensing result of the optical sensor. Even though the conventional technology of optical touch control is already capable of effectively determining the touch position of a single touch point, the issues of blind area and ghost point arise when a multi-touch operation is performed by using a plurality of touch tools at the same time.
Referring to
Moreover, it is noted herein that patent documents relating to touch apparatuses include Taiwan Utility Patent No. M353418, Taiwan Patent No. I402722, Taiwan Patent Publication No. 201220138, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20100170725 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 20110198134.
The invention provides a touch apparatus and a touch sensing method thereof capable of effectively improving the issue of ghost point.
Other objects and advantages of the invention can be further understood by the technical features broadly embodied and described as follows.
To achieve one or a part of or all of the objects aforementioned or other objectives, an embodiment of the invention provides a touch apparatus, including a first scanning unit, a second scanning unit, a first control unit, and at least on touch tool. The first scanning unit emits a first scanning light beam to scan a touch area. The second scanning unit emits a second scanning light beam to scan the touch area. The first control unit is coupled to the first scanning unit and the second scanning unit, and controls the first and second scanning units to scan the touch area. The touch tool receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam to generate touch information when performing a touch operation in the touch area, and transmits the touch information to the first control unit wirelessly, wherein the touch information includes the time when the touch tool receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam, and the first control unit calculates coordinates of the touch tool in the touch area based on the touch information.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the first control unit broadcasts identification information of the first scanning unit when the first scanning unit scans the touch area and broadcasts identification information of the second scanning unit when the second scanning unit scans the touch area, wherein the touch information further includes the identification information of the first scanning unit corresponding to the first scanning light beam and the identification information of the second scanning unit corresponding to the second scanning light beam received by the touch tool.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the touch tool is a touch pen, and the touch tool includes a transparent tip, a receiving unit, a communication unit, and a second control unit. The receiving unit receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam through the transparent tip. The second control unit is coupled to the receiving unit and the communication unit, detects whether the receiving unit receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam, and sends the touch information to the first control unit through the communication unit when the receiving unit receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the receiving unit is energized to receive the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam through the transparent tip when the transparent tip is pressed.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the receiving unit is a photodiode.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the first control unit further searches for the touch tool to wirelessly connect to and synchronize with the touch tool.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the first scanning unit, the second scanning unit, and the control unit are disposed on a long straight plate.
An embodiment of the invention provides a touch sensing method of a touch apparatus including steps as follows. A first scanning light beam is emitted to scan a touch area. A second scanning light beam is emitted to scan the touch area. Touch information is received from at least one touch tool, wherein the touch information includes the time when the touch tool receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam. Coordinates of the touch tool in the touch area are calculated based on the touch information.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the touch sensing method of the touch apparatus further includes steps as follows. Identification information of a first scanning unit corresponding to the first scanning light beam is broadcast when emitting the first scanning light beam. Identification information of a second scanning unit corresponding to the second scanning light beam is broadcast when emitting the second scanning light beam, wherein the touch information further includes the identification information of the first scanning unit corresponding to the first scanning light beam and the identification information of the second scanning unit corresponding to the second scanning light beam received by the touch tool.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the touch tool receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam when performing a touch operation in the touch area.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the touch tool is a touch pen having a transparent tip, and the touch pen receives the first scanning light beam and the second scanning light beam through the transparent tip when the transparent tip is pressed.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the touch sensing method of the touch apparatus further includes searching for the touch tool to wirelessly connect to and synchronize with the touch tool.
Based on the above, in the embodiments of the invention, the issue of ghost point is effectively solved by actively returning the touch information generated based on the touch light beam that is received through the touch tool, and calculating the coordinates of the touch tool in the touch area based on the returned touch information.
Other objectives, features and advantages of the invention will be further understood from the further technological features disclosed by the embodiments of the invention wherein there are shown and described preferred embodiments of this invention, simply by way of illustration of modes best suited to carry out the invention.
In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In this regard, directional terminology, such as “top,” “bottom,” “front,” “back,” etc., is used with reference to the orientation of the Figure(s) being described. The components of the invention can be positioned in a number of different orientations. As such, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is in no way limiting. On the other hand, the drawings are only schematic and the sizes of components may be exaggerated for clarity. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” and “mounted” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect connections, couplings, and mountings. Similarly, the terms “facing,” “faces” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect facing, and “adjacent to” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass directly and indirectly “adjacent to.” Therefore, the description of “A” component facing “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component directly faces “B” component or one or more additional components are between “A” component and “B” component. Also, the description of “A” component “adjacent to” “B” component herein may contain the situations that “A” component is directly “adjacent to” “B” component or one or more additional components are between “A” component and “B” component. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
More specifically, as shown in
Since the receiving unit 204 receives the scanning light beams L1 and L2 through the transparent tip 202, only a part of the scanning light beam L1 and a part of the scanning light beam L2 are received by the receiving unit 204, and the remaining scanning light beams L1 and L2 pass through the transparent tip 202 and are transmitted along the original direction. In this way, even if there are plural touch tools 108 performing touch operations at the same time on a light path of the same scanning light beam, the touch tools 108 are still able to receive the scanning light beam respectively (in
It should be noted that the receiving unit 204 in the touch tool 108 may be designed to be energized when the transparent tip 202 is pressed. For example, it may be designed that the receiving unit 204 is electrically connected to the control unit 208 when the transparent tip 202 is pressed, and the receiving unit 204 thus receives and converts the scanning light beams L1 and L2 into electrical signals to the control unit 208. Such configuration ensures that the touch tool 108 only receives the scanning light beam when performing a touch operation, and prevents the transparent tip 202 from receiving the scanning light beam before actually touching a plane of the touch area A1, resulting in a misjudgment of touch position.
In addition, in other embodiments, when the control unit 106 controls the scanning units 102 and 104 to emit the scanning light beams L1 and L2 to scan the touch area A1, the control unit 106 may also broadcast identification information of the scanning units 102 and 104 to inform the touch tool 108 where the received scanning light beam is emitted from. Also, the touch information generated by the touch tool 108 may also include the identification information of the scanning unit corresponding to the emitted scanning light beam in addition to the time when the scanning light beam is received. In this way, the control unit 106 is able to more accurately verify the time when the touch tool 108 receives each scanning light beam and the corresponding identification information of the scanning unit, so as to further avoid misjudgment of touch position.
In addition, positions where the scanning units 102 and 104 are fixed on the long straight plate B1 may be designed based on the actual practice, as long as scanning ranges of the scanning units 102 and 104 cover the touch area A1. Such configuration ensures that a touch operation may be performed at every position in the touch area A1. In some embodiments, if the touch area A1 is too large, the number of scanning units may be increased to supplement the scanning ranges (as indicated by dotted lines of
In view of the foregoing, in the embodiments of the invention, the issue of ghost point is effectively solved to prevent the blind area for touch control in the touch area by designing the touch tool to actively return the touch information generated based on the touch light beam that is received, and calculating the coordinates of the touch tool in the touch area based on the returned touch information. In some embodiments, the scanning unit is fixed on the long straight plate to save the time and cost of labor consumed for installing the touch apparatus in the conventional art.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form or to exemplary embodiments disclosed. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. The embodiments are chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its best mode practical application, thereby to enable persons skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use or implementation contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated. Therefore, the term “the invention” or the like does not necessarily limit the claim scope to a specific embodiment, and the reference to particularly preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention does not imply a limitation on the invention, and no such limitation is to be inferred. The invention is limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The abstract of the disclosure is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, which will allow a searcher to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure of any patent issued from this disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Any advantages and benefits described may not apply to all embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated that variations may be made in the embodiments described by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Moreover, no element and component in the disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element or component is explicitly recited in the following claims. And these claims may refer to use “first,” “second,” etc. following with noun or element. Such terms should be understood as a nomenclature and should not be construed as giving the limitation on the number of the elements modified by such nomenclature unless specific number has been given.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201410364505.6 | Jul 2014 | CN | national |
