Patent · US Expired

Touchpad with active plane for pen detection

US5945980A · kind A · utility

263Cited by
10References
25Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 14, 1997
Grant dateAug 31, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 14, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F3/0446
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A touchpad which simulates an active stylus by providing pulses to the entire active plane (making it an active plane), instead of the stylus. This allows a simple, non-active stylus to compress the touchpad to bring the X, Y traces closer to the active plane at the point to be detected. The phase of the pulses applied to the active ground could be chosen to make a stylus look like a finger, or to differentiate it. The pulses are applied synchronously with the standard triangular waveform applied to traces in the trace matrix. The other traces not being sampled at a particular time are truly grounded, and thus are separated from the active plane.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.