Two-dimensional touch sensors
US8154529B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 14, 2009 |
| Grant date | Apr 10, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 8, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2203/04808
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In a touch sensor, as well as providing touch position data, additional data is provided on the shape of the touch. This is achieved by having sampling nodes on a finer mesh than the size of the actuating object, typically a finger, so each finger touch activates a group of adjacent nodes on the sensor. In this way, each touch has a shape formed by the activated nodes. The shape allows the touch sensor to report an angle with each touch and data indicating how elongate the touch is, preferably both together as a vector in which the direction of the vector gives the angle and the magnitude of the vector gives the ellipticity. For each frame of data collected from the sensor array, the sensor outputs an (x, y) coordinate of touch position and a further (x, y) coordinate of a shape vector. This allows many novel gestures to be provided, such as single finger “drag and zoom” and single finger “drag and rotate”. It also allows for correction of systematic human error in the placement of finger touches on virtual keys.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.