Touch confirming touchscreen utilizing plural touch sensors
US6504530B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 7, 1999 |
| Grant date | Jan 7, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 7, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/04186
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for discriminating against false touches in a touchscreen system is provided. The system is designed to confirm a touch registered by one touch sensor with another touch sensor, preferably of a different sensor type, prior to acting upon the touch (i.e., sending touch coordinates to the operating system). If the touch registered by the first touch sensor is not confirmed by the second touch sensor, the touch is invalidated. Thus the strengths of one type of sensor are used to overcome the deficiencies of another type of sensor. In one aspect, the secondary touch sensor comprises a force sensor to discriminate between true and false touches on other types of touch sensors, such as contaminants on optical and surface acoustic wave sensors, noise or weak signals on capacitive sensors, etc. The force sensor may be a simple one-element system that merely indicates that a touch has occurred or a multi-element system that can provide confirming or supplementary coordinate data. In another aspect, a capacitive sensor is used to confirm or veto touch data from optical, surface acoustic wave, and force sensors. As is the case with the secondary force sensor, a secondar…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.