Patent Application
20150049052
1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to operating a communication device, and including using a touch-based stylus to interface with the communication device.
2. Related Art
Conventional touch-screens are used to interact with various conventional communication devices, such as all-in-one computers, tablet computers, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite navigation devices, video gaming devices, kiosk systems in retail and tourist settings, point of sale systems, or automatic teller machines (ATMs). A variety of conventional touch-screen technologies that have varying methods for sensing touch are available for use within these conventional communication devices.
One variety of conventional touch-screen technology is a capacitive touch-screen, such as a surface capacitance touch-screen, a projected capacitance touch-screen, a mutual capacitance touch-screen, or a self-capacitance touch-screen. Each of these capacitive touch-screens includes rows and columns of transparent conductive material, such as indium tin oxide to provide an example, that are arranged to form a touch-sensitive area above a display area. During operation, small electrical signals are applied to the rows and/or the columns to form local electrostatic fields. Certain local electrostatic fields between the rows and the columns can be disrupted by touching to the touch-sensitive area. Herein, a touch can represent a physical touching of the touch-sensitive area by a user of the conventional communication device and/or by a passive object available to the user, or proximity of the user and/or the passive object to the touch-sensitive area. The conventional communication device measures changes of the local electrostatic fields, in terms of changes in capacitance, to interpret an instance and/or a location of the touch.
The touch-sensitive area of the conventional touch-screen is touched by a finger or a hand of the user. However, a passive object, such as a conventional stylus to provide an example, can be available to the user. The conventional stylus represents a small tool, typically in the form of a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ball point pen, which is used to assist in navigating or for providing more precision when compared to the touch of the user.
The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The figure in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the reference number.
A user of a communication device can operate and/or control a communication device by touching a touch-sensitive area of a touch-screen of the communication device with a touch-based stylus. When the touch-based stylus is sufficiently proximate to the touch-sensitive area, the communication device begins to induce a current within the touch-based stylus. The induced current causes a voltage to accumulate within the touch-based stylus. The accumulated voltage transfers to the touch-sensitive area when the touch-based stylus touches the touch-sensitive area Thereafter, the communication device detects the touch from the touch-based stylus onto the touch-sensitive area based upon the transferred voltage. Optionally, the communication device can interpret the touch as being one or more commands and/or data from the user for operating and/or controlling the communication device.
As illustrated in
The user can touch the touch-screen 104 using a finger or other portion of their hand to interact with the communication device 102. In some instances, however, the touch-based stylus 106 is available to the user. The touch-based stylus 106 represents a small tool, typically in the form of a narrow elongated staff, similar to a ball point pen, which assists the user in interacting with the communication device 102. As additionally illustrated in
The induced current causes one or more resonant circuits within the touch-based stylus 106 to resonate at their respective resonant frequencies. The one or more resonant circuits can include one or more resistive elements, one or more capacitive elements, and/or one or more inductive elements that are configured and arranged to form a series resonant circuit, a parallel resonant circuit, or any combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, the respective resonant frequencies of the one or more resonant circuits are collectively selected such that a resonant frequency of the touch-based stylus 106, as whole, is approximately equal to a frequency of the excitation signal 150. The resonating of the one or more resonant circuits of the touch-based stylus 106 causes a voltage to accumulate in the touch-based stylus 106. In another exemplary embodiment, the touch-based stylus 106 is located at a sufficient distance, such as approximately two centimeters to provide an example, from the one or more resonant circuits to reduce unintentional transfer of the accumulated voltage from the touch-based stylus 106 to the touch-screen 104.
When the touch-based stylus 106 touches the touch-screen 104, the voltage capacitively transfers, as an interface signal 152, from the touch-based stylus 106 to the touch-screen 104. Typically. the interface signal 152 is characterized as having a frequency that corresponds to the respective resonant frequencies of the one or more resonant circuits of the touch-based stylus 106.
The communication device 102 detects the touch from the touch-based stylus 106 onto the touch-screen 104 based upon the interface signal 152. For example, the communication device 102 can detect an instance and/or a location of the touch from the touch-based stylus 106. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication device 102 can determine one or more signal metrics of the interface signal 152 at one or more locations within the touch-screen 104. The one or more signal metrics may include a mean voltage and/or current level, an average voltage and/or current level, an instantaneous voltage and/or current level, a root mean square voltage and/or current level, a mean power, an average power, an instantaneous power, a root mean square power, a frequency, a phase and/or any other suitable signal metric of the interface signal 152 at the one or more locations within the touch-screen 104. Thereafter, the communication device 102 can determine the instance and/or the location of the touch from the touch-based stylus 106 from the one or signal metrics. Optionally, the communication device 102 can interpret the instance and/or the location of the touch as being one or more commands and/or data from the user for operating and/or controlling the communication device 102.
As discussed above in
As illustrated in
As discussed above in
The communication interface 310 routes various communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 304. The communication interface 310 can be implemented as a series of wired and/or wireless interconnections between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 304. The interconnections of the communication interface 310 can be arranged to form a parallel interface to route communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 304 in parallel, or a serial interface to route communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 304, or any combination thereof. The communication device 300 can represent an exemplary embodiment of the communication device 102.
The host processor 302 controls overall operation and/or configuration of the communication device 300. The host processor 302 can receive and/or process information from a user interface such as an alphanumeric keypad, a microphone, a mouse, a speaker, and/or from other electrical devices or host devices that are coupled to the communication device 300. The host processor 302 can provide this information to the communication module 306 and/or the touch-screen controller 304. Additionally, the host processor 302 can receive and/or process information from the communication module 306 and/or the touch-screen controller 304. The host processor 302 can provide this information to the user interface, to other electrical devices or host devices, and/or to the communication module 306 and/or the touch-screen controller 304. Further, the host processor 302 can execute one or more applications such as Short Message Service (SMS) for text messaging, electronic mailing, and/or audio and/or video recording to provide some examples, and/or software applications such as a calendar and/or a phone book to provide some examples.
The touch-screen controller 304 communicates information between the touch-screen 104, the host processor 302, and the communication module 306. The touch-screen controller 304 provides various signals to the touch-screen 104 to configure its display area to display the information. For example, the touch-screen controller 304 can provide various control signals to the touch-screen 104 to display image data or video data received from the host processor 302 and/or the communication module 306. Additionally, the touch-screen controller 304 can receive various signals from the touch-screen 104 which can be used to detect the touch from the touch-based stylus 106 as to be discussed below.
The communication module 306 can include one or more of: a Bluetooth module, a Global Position System (GPS) module, a cellular module, a wireless local area network (WLAN) module, a near field communication (NFC) module, a radio frequency identification (RFID) module and/or a wireless power transfer (WPT) module. The Bluetooth module, the cellular module, the WLAN module, the NFC module, and the RFID module provide wireless communication between the communication device 300 and other Bluetooth, other cellular, other WLAN, other NFC, and other RFID capable communication devices, respectively, in accordance with various communication standards or protocols. These various communication standards or protocols can include various cellular communication standards such as a third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications standard, a fourth generation (4G) mobile communications standard, or a third generation (3G) mobile communications standard, various networking protocols such a Wi-Fi communications standard, various NFC/RFID communications protocols such as ISO 1422, ISO/IEC 14443, ISO/IEC 15693, ISO/IEC 18000, or FeliCa to provide some examples. The GPS module receives various signals from various satellites to determine location information for the communication device 300. The WPT module supports wireless transmission of power between the communication device 300 and another WPT capable communication device.
The NEC core module 402 operates as an interface between the antenna module 404 and other modules of the communication device 300, such as the host processor 302 and/or the touch-screen controller 304 to provide some examples. The NEC core module 402 can include a modulator module to modulate various signals to be provided to the antenna module 404, a demodulator module to demodulate various signals provided by the antenna module 404, and/or a controller module to configure the modulator module and/or the demodulator module. As illustrated in
The antenna module 404 applies a carrier wave from the NFC core module 402 to an inductive coupling element 408, such as a tuned resonant circuit to provide an example, to generate a magnetic field to provide the excitation signal 150. The antenna module 404 can also include an antenna interface 406 which represents a matching network between the NFC core module 402 and the inductive coupling element 408. In an exemplary embodiment, the antenna interface 406 and the inductive coupling element 408 form a tuned resonant circuit.
In exemplary embodiments, the inductive coupling element 408 can be implemented using unshielded cable formed of a conductive material, such as copper to provide an example, that is configured and arranged to form one or more turns. These one or more turns can be enclosed within a perimeter of a mechanical chassis 502 so as to enclose all, or a substantial portion of, the touch-screen 104 with the magnetic field. The one or more turns can be configured and arranged to form any regular geometric structure, irregular geometric structure, open structure, closed structure, or any combination thereof within or on the mechanical chassis 502, such as around the perimeter of the mechanical chassis 502. However, other configurations and arrangements for the inductive coupling element 408 are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. For example, the inductive coupling element 408 can be implemented as one or more turns of conductive material integrated within the mechanical chassis 502. As another example, the inductive coupling element 408 can be implemented within an interior perimeter of the communication device 500 using a waveguide, such as stripline or microstrip to provide some examples. As a further example, the inductive coupling element 408 can be implemented within the touch-screen 104.
Referring back to
Referring back to
The communication interface 310 routes various communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 308. The communication interface 310 can be implemented as a series of wired and/or wireless interconnections between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 308. The interconnections of the communication interface 310 can be arranged to form a parallel interface to route communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 308 in parallel, or a serial interface to route communications between the communications module 302, the host processor 304, and the touch-screen controller 308, or any combination thereof.
The mechanical chassis 602 represents a mechanical enclosure for the touch-based stylus 600. It is often constructed using a conductive material, such as metal, a non-conductive material, such as plastic, or any combination of the conductive and the non-conductive materials that will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s) without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Typically, the mechanical chassis 602 includes one or more conductive regions that are coupled to the touch-based stylus core 604. The one or more conductive regions can form a virtual ground for the touch-based stylus core 604 when grasped by a user. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more conductive regions include a conductive holder or clasp 608 that fauns the virtual ground when grasped by the user. In another exemplary embodiment, the mechanical chassis 602 includes one or more non-conductive regions that are interdigitated with the one or more conductive regions such that the one or more conductive regions can form the virtual ground for the touch-based stylus core 604 when grasped by the user. The one or more non-conductive regions can be horizontally and/or vertically interdigitated with the one or more conductive regions. In some instances, the mechanical chassis 602 can include one or more buttons. In these instances, when the user activates the one or more buttons, a frequency and/or a phase of the charge that is transferred onto the touch-sensitive area of the communication device changes. This change in frequency and/or phase can be detected and interpreted by the communication device to indicate activation of the one or more buttons by the user.
The touch-based stylus core 604 can be implemented using one or more passive devices, such as one or more resistances, one or more capacitances, and/or one or more inductances to provide some examples. The one or more passive devices are configured and arranged to form a resonant tuned circuit, such as a LC tuned circuit or RLC tuned circuit to provide some examples. Typically, the one or more passive devices include one or more charge storage elements, such as one or more capacitances to provide an example. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more charge storage elements charge upon a rising edge of the excitation signal and discharge upon a falling edge of the excitation signal. Once these storage elements begin to discharge, the touch-based stylus core 604 begins to resonate or oscillate at a resonant frequency to cause a voltage to accumulate in the conductive tip 606 when a conductive portion of the mechanical chassis 602 is touched by the user.
In an exemplary embodiment, the touch-based stylus core 604 can include one or more stylus controllers and one or more associated machine-readable media for storing one or more operational parameters of the touch-based stylus 600. In this exemplary embodiment, the one or more operational parameters can include one or more profile settings that can be customizable by the user for displaying information onto a communication device, such as the communication device 102, the communication device 200, the communication device 300 or the communication device 500 to provide some examples. In an exemplary embodiment, the user can customize the one or more profile settings of the communication device which can be provided by the communication device to the touch-based stylus 600. In this exemplary embodiment, the one or more profile settings can be provided by the touch-based stylus 600 to another communication device to configure the other communication device in a substantially similar manner as the communication device. The one or more profile settings can include an image, as referred to as wallpaper, to be displayed in a display of the communication device, color and appearance of the display of the communication device, sounds effects to be played by the communication device, screen saver to be used by the communication device, screen resolution of the display of the communication device, authentication or authorization information, such as user name and/or password to provide some examples, to be used by the communication device.
The conductive tip 606 represents a region of the touch-based stylus 600 which accumulates the charge when the touch-based stylus 600 is resonating. In an exemplary embodiment, the conductive tip 606 is isolated from the mechanical chassis 602, typically the one or more conductive regions, using a non-conductive material. The voltage that accumulates in the conductive tip 606 capacitively and/or inductively transfers from the touch-based stylus 600 to a touch-sensitive area of a touch-screen of the communication device when the conductive tip 606 touches, or is sufficiently proximate, to the touch-sensitive area. In some instances, the conductive tip 606 can represent a pressure sensitive element having a pressure varying capacitor which can change the resonant frequency of the resonant tuned circuit when the touch-based stylus 600 is pressed onto the touch-sensitive area of the touch-sensitive area of the communication device. In these instances, the communication device can measure a difference in frequency, namely a difference between an expected frequency and an actual frequency, to determine whether the pressure sensitive element is pressed onto the touch-sensitive area.
The resonant tuned circuit 702 capacitively and/or inductively receives the excitation signal from the communication device. The excitation signal causes the touch-based stylus 106 to resonate at its respective resonant frequency. The touch-based stylus core 702 can be implemented using one or more passive devices, such as one or more resistances, one or more capacitances, and/or one or more inductances to provide some examples, which are configured and arranged to form a resonant tuned circuit, such as a LC tuned circuit or RLC tuned circuit to provide some examples. As illustrated in
In an exemplary embodiment, the inductance 708 can be implemented using unshielded cable formed of a conductive material, such as copper to provide an example, that is configured and arranged to form one or more turns. These one or more turns can be enclosed within one or more non-conductive regions of a mechanical chassis, such as the mechanical chassis 602 to provide an example, of the touch-based stylus 700. The one or more non-conductive regions can allow the excitation signal to pass through the mechanical chassis to be inductively received by the inductance 708. The one or more turns can be configured and arranged to form any regular geometric structure, irregular geometric structure, open structure, close structure, or any combination thereof within the mechanical chassis such as around the perimeter of the mechanical chassis. Other configurations and arrangements for the inductance 708 are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. For example, the inductance 708 can be implemented as a one or more turns of conductive material integrated within the non-conductive regions of the mechanical chassis. As another example, the inductance 708 can be implemented within a perimeter of the resonant tuned circuit 702 using a waveguide, such as stripline or microstrip to provide some examples, whereby the excitation signal can pass through the non-conductive regions of the mechanical chassis to be inductively received by the inductance 708.
The resonating of the resonant tuned circuit 702 causes a voltage to accumulate within the conductive tip 704 when touched by the user. This charge capacitively transfers to a touch-sensitive area of a touch-screen of the communication device when the conductive tip 704 touches, or is sufficiently proximate, to the touch-sensitive area. Generally, a shape of the conductive tip 704 is chosen such that the projection of the conductive tip 704 onto the communication device is relatively independent of the angle of the conductive tip 704 when touching the communication device with the touch-based stylus 700. In an exemplary embodiment, the conductive tip 704 can be implemented using a substantially spherical shape which is electrically connected to resonant tuned circuit 702. In this exemplary embodiment, additional non-conductive materials can be used within the conductive tip 704 to provide mechanical support to the substantially spherical shape. In another exemplary embodiment, any material covering the conductive tip 704 should be chosen to provide an appropriate texture to substantially match the feel of writing with a pen on paper. In a further exemplary embodiment, the conductive tip 704 can be implemented using a cylinder having one end being in an approximate shape of a half sphere. Preferably, a length of the cylinder should not be much more than a diameter of the half-sphere.
The one or more conductive regions 706 can form a virtual ground for the touch-based stylus core 700 when grasped by the user. The virtual ground maintains the touch-based stylus core 700 at a substantially steady reference potential to allow the resonant tuned circuit 702 to resonate upon receipt of the excitation signal.
As illustrated in
The voltage that accumulates in the conductive tip, when the touch-based stylus 800 is touched by the user, capacitively transfers from the conductive tip to the rows 804.1 through 804.i and/or and columns 806.1 through 806.i of the transparent conductive material through the one or more capacitors 808.1 through 808.k to provide interface signals 850.1 through 850.k. Typically, an intensity of each of the interface signals 850.1 through 850.k is proportional to a distance from the conductive tip to its corresponding rows 804.1 through 804.i and/or and columns 806.1 through 806.i. A larger distance usually results in a smaller capacitance whereas a smaller distance usually results in a larger capacitance. Those interface signals 850.1 through 850.k that are capacitively transferred from larger capacitances typically exhibit a larger intensity than those interface signals 850.1 through 850.k that are capacitively transferred from smaller capacitances.
The following Detailed Description referred to accompanying figures to illustrate exemplary embodiments consistent with the disclosure. References in the disclosure to “an exemplary embodiment” indicates that the exemplary embodiment described can include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every exemplary embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same exemplary embodiment. Further, any feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with an exemplary embodiment can be included, independently or in any combination, with features, structures, or characteristics of other exemplary embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
The Detailed Description is not meant to limiting. Rather, the scope of the disclosure is defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents. It is to be appreciated that the Detailed Description section, and not the Abstract section, is intended to be used to interpret the claims. The Abstract section can set forth one or more, but not all exemplary embodiments, of the disclosure, and thus, are not intended to limit the disclosure and the following claims and their equivalents in any way.
The exemplary embodiments described within the disclosure have been provided for illustrative purposes, and are not intend to be limiting. Other exemplary embodiments are possible, and modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments while remaining within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. The disclosure has been described 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 so long as the specified functions and relationships thereof are appropriately performed.
Embodiments of the disclosure can be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. Embodiments of the disclosure can also be implemented as instructions stored on a machine-readable medium, which can be read and executed by one or more processors. A machine-readable medium can include any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computing device). For example, a machine-readable medium can include non-transitory machine-readable mediums such as read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; and others. As another example, the machine-readable medium can include transitory machine-readable medium such as electrical, optical, acoustical, or other forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.). Further, firmware, software, routines, instructions can be described herein as performing certain actions. However, it should be appreciated that such descriptions are merely for convenience and that such actions in fact result from computing devices, processors, controllers, or other devices executing the firmware, software, routines, instructions, etc.
The Detailed Description of the exemplary embodiments fully revealed the general nature of the disclosure that others can, by applying knowledge of those skilled in relevant art(s), readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such exemplary embodiments, without undue experimentation, without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, such adaptations and modifications are intended to be within the meaning and plurality of equivalents of the exemplary embodiments based upon the teaching and guidance presented herein. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by those skilled in relevant art(s) in light of the teachings herein.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Appl. No. 61/860,824, filed Jul. 31, 2013, and U.S. Provisional Patent Appl. No. 61/951,716, filed Mar. 12, 2014, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61860824 | Jul 2013 | US | |
| 61951716 | Mar 2014 | US |
