Detecting touch input force

• US 10,198,097 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2012
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sentons, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sentons, Inc.
• Inventors: Lynn, Lapoe E., Sheng, Samuel W., Shih, Shih-Ming, Hsieh, Yenyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shah, Sujit
• Application Number:
  US13/681,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20130141365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,269 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04805 Virtual magnifying lens, i.e. window or frame movable on top of displayed information to enlarge it for better reading or selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Detecting a touch input force is disclosed. A signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal through a propagating medium with a surface is sent. The propagating signal that has been disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface is received. The received signal is processed to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force.

Claims

1. A system for detecting a touch input force, comprising:

a signal generator configured to send a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal through a propagating medium with a surface, wherein the system is configured to receive the propagating signal that has been disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and

a processor coupled to the signal generator and configured to process the received signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein the identifier associated with the amount of force includes a force value indicating a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface providing a point of interaction between the propagating signal and an object utilized to provide the touch input and determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude of the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium prior to the touch input with an adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal that has been disturbed by the touch input force of the touch input, wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force of the touch input includes an ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence propagated via the propagating medium with the surface, the adjusted amplitude that is compared with the reference amplitude corresponds to a portion of the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence of the propagating signal ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium with the surface that has been disturbed on the surface of the propagating medium directly by the object utilized to provide the touch input, and the adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal indicates an amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium, and the amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium corresponds to the magnitude of the amount of force indicated by the identifier;

wherein processing the received signal includes normalizing the received signal, normalizing the received signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received signal in determining the adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the received signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the received signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with a location of the disturbance on the surface that has been determined using the received signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received signal in determining the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force is at or below 100 kHz.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the same propagating signal that includes the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence and utilized to determine the amount of force of the touch input is also utilized in determining a location of the disturbance on the surface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processed received signal is one of a plurality of versions of the disturbed propagating signal received by the system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the processed received signal.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a location associated with a detector that received the processed received signal.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein processing the received signal includes determining the adjusted amplitude associated with a portion of the received signal disturbed by the touch input.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein determining the adjusted amplitude associated with the portion of the received signal disturbed by the touch input includes determining the adjusted amplitude of a normalized version of the received signal.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein a value of the adjusted amplitude is a function of the amount of the force.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein determining the identifier includes using the adjusted amplitude to locate a data structure entry, wherein the data structure entry includes the identifier associated with the amount of force.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data structure entry was located in a data structure identified to match a detector that received the processed received signal.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein comparing the reference amplitude with the adjusted amplitude includes comparing with the reference amplitude a weighted average of the adjusted amplitude and one or more other signal amplitudes of one or more other received signals that have been disturbed by the touch input while ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium to determine the force value indicating the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to combine the identifier associated with the amount of force with one or more other identifiers associated with an amount of force of one or more other touch input location points to determine a combined force identifier.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifier is used at least in part to provide a user interface interaction.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifier indicates an amount of pressure.

16. A method for detecting a touch input force, comprising:

sending a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal through a propagating medium with a surface;

receiving the propagating signal that has been disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and

using a processor to process the received signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein the identifier associated with the amount of force includes a force value indicating a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface providing a point of interaction between the propagating signal and an object utilized to provide the touch input and determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude of the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium prior to the touch input with an adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal that has been disturbed by the touch input force of the touch input, wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force of the touch input includes an ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence propagated via the propagating medium with the surface, the adjusted amplitude that is compared with the reference amplitude corresponds to a portion of the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence of the propagating signal ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium with the surface that has been disturbed on the surface of the propagating medium directly by the object utilized to provide the touch input, and the adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal indicates an amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium, and the amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium corresponds to the magnitude of the amount of force indicated by the identifier;

wherein processing the received signal includes normalizing the received signal, normalizing the received signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received signal in determining the adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the received signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the received signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with a location of the disturbance on the surface that has been determined using the received signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received signal in determining the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the processed received signal is one of a plurality of versions of the disturbed propagating signal that has been received.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the processed received signal.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the processed received signal was selected among the plurality of versions due to a location associated with a detector that received the processed received signal.

20. A computer program product for detecting a touch input force, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

sending a signal to be used to propagate a propagating signal through a propagating medium with a surface;

receiving the propagating signal that has been disturbed by a touch input with an amount of force on the surface; and

processing the received signal to determine an identifier associated with the amount of force, wherein the identifier associated with the amount of force includes a force value indicating a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface providing a point of interaction between the propagating signal and an object utilized to provide the touch input and determining the identifier associated with the amount of force includes comparing a reference amplitude of the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium prior to the touch input with an adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal that has been disturbed by the touch input force of the touch input, wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force of the touch input includes an ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence propagated via the propagating medium with the surface, the adjusted amplitude that is compared with the reference amplitude corresponds to a portion of the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence of the propagating signal ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium with the surface that has been disturbed on the surface of the propagating medium directly by the object utilized to provide the touch input, and the adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal indicates an amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium, and the amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium corresponds to the magnitude of the amount of force indicated by the identifier;

wherein processing the received signal includes normalizing the received signal, normalizing the received signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the received signal in determining the adjusted amplitude, and adjusting an initial amplitude of the received signal includes scaling at least the portion of the received signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with a location of the disturbance on the surface that has been determined using the received signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the received signal in determining the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input.

21. A system for detecting a touch input force including:

a surface configured to receive a touch input with an amount of force;

a transmitter that propagates a propagating signal through a medium of the surface, wherein the propagating signal is disturbed by the touch input that disturbs the propagating signal; and

a detector that detects the disturbed propagating signal, wherein the detector outputs data indicating a disturbance of the propagating signal that is indicative of the amount of force, the data indicating the disturbance includes a force value indicating a magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input on the surface providing a point of interaction between the propagating signal and an object utilized to provide the touch input and the data that is indicative of the amount of force has been determined by comparing a reference amplitude of the propagating signal propagating through the medium prior to the touch input with an adjusted amplitude of the disturbed propagating signal that has been disturbed by the touch input, wherein the propagating signal utilized in determining the amount of force of the touch input includes an ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence propagated via the propagating medium with the surface, the adjusted amplitude that is compared with the reference amplitude corresponds to a portion of the ultrasonic modulated pseudorandom binary sequence of the propagating signal ultrasonically propagating through the propagating medium with the surface that has been disturbed on the surface of the propagating medium directly by the object utilized to provide the touch input, and the adjusted amplitude of the received propagating signal indicates an amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium, and the amount of disturbance to the propagating signal propagating through the propagating medium corresponds to the magnitude of the amount of force indicated by the identifier;

wherein the data that is indicative of the amount of force has been determined including by normalizing the detected disturbed propagating signal, normalizing the detected disturbed propagating signal includes adjusting at least a portion of the detected disturbed propagating signal in determining the adjusted amplitude, and adjusting at least the portion of the detected disturbed propagating signal includes scaling an initial amplitude of the detected disturbed propagating signal using a value determined using a distance value associated with a location of the disturbance on the surface that has been determined using the detected disturbed propagating signal prior to scaling the initial amplitude of the detected disturbed propagating signal in determining the magnitude of the amount of force of the touch input.