Interactive textiles within hard objects

• US 10,268,321 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2014
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Poupyrev, Ivan
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustine, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US14/504,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20160048236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,665 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04102 Flexible digitiser, i.e. constructional details for allowing the whole digitising part of a device to be flexed or rolled like a sheet of paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

This document describes interactive textiles within hard objects. An interactive textile includes a grid of conductive thread woven into the interactive textile to form a capacitive touch sensor that is configured to detect touch-input. The interactive textile can process the touch-input to generate touch data that is useable to control various remote devices. For example, the interactive textiles may aid users in controlling volume on a stereo, pausing a movie playing on a television, or selecting a webpage on a desktop computer. Due to the flexibility of textiles, the interactive textile may be easily integrated within flexible objects, such as clothing, handbags, fabric casings, hats, and so forth. In one or more implementations, the interactive textiles may be integrated within various hard objects, such as by injection molding the interactive textile into a plastic cup, a hard casing of a smart phone, and so forth.

Claims

1. A hard object comprising:

an interactive textile covering at least a portion of a three-dimensional outer surface of the hard object, the interactive textile comprising a grid of conductive thread woven into the interactive textile to form a capacitive touch sensor, the grid of conductive thread formed by a plurality of textile layers that are combined with one another, the plurality of textile layers including;

a first textile layer having first conductive threads in a first direction;

a second textile layer overlapping the first textile layer and having second conductive threads in a second direction that is different than the first direction of the first conductive threads, the second conductive threads positioned to cross the first conductive threads; and

a third textile layer not conductive and being disposed between the first textile layer and the second textile layer to prevent direct contact between the first conductive threads and the second conductive threads; and

a textile controller coupled to the capacitive touch sensor, the textile controller configured to;

detect touch-input to the capacitive touch sensor when an object touches the grid of conductive thread woven into the interactive textile, the touch-input detected based on an area touched by the object that corresponds to multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive thread, the area detected based on a change in capacitance of multiple ones of the first conductive threads or of the second conductive threads in the grid of conductive threads;

determine positioning coordinates of one or more of the multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive threads using one or more intersections of crossing conductive threads that correspond to the change in capacitance;

identify a time indicating when the one or more of the multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive thread was touched; and

process the touch-input, the positioning coordinates, and the time indicating when the one or more of the multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive thread was touched to provide touch data usable to determine a gesture type from a plurality of gesture types and control a computing device or an application at the computing device based on the gesture type.

2. The hard object as recited in claim 1, wherein injection molding is used to permanently attach the interactive textile to the hard object.

3. The hard object as recited in claim 1, wherein the hard object comprises a plastic object.

4. The hard object as recited in claim 1, wherein the second conductive threads are positioned substantially orthogonal to the first conductive threads to create multiple intersection points.

5. The hard object as recited in claim 1, wherein the textile controller is configured to detect the touch-input by:

charging the first conductive threads and charging the second conductive threads by applying a control signal to both the first conductive threads and the second conductive threads; and

detecting a change in capacitance on a corresponding first conductive thread and a corresponding second conductive thread when the touch-input is received.

6. The hard object as recited in claim 5, wherein the textile controller is configured to process the touch-input by:

determining a position of the touch-input as an intersection point between the corresponding first conductive thread and the corresponding second conductive thread on the grid of conductive thread.

7. The hard object as recited in claim 1, wherein the textile controller is configured to process the touch-input by determining a position of the touch-input based on the multiple ones of the first conductive threads or of the second conductive threads on which the change in capacitance is detected.

8. A method comprising:

detecting touch-input to a grid of conductive thread woven into an interactive textile integrated within a hard object, the touch-input detected based on an area corresponding to multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive thread, the area detected based on a change in capacitance of multiple parallel conductive threads of first conductive threads in a first textile layer of the interactive textile that are separated from second conductive threads in a second textile layer of the interactive textile by a third textile layer of the interactive textile, the second conductive threads crossing the first conducting threads, the third textile layer not conductive and configured to prevent direct contact between the first conductive threads and the second conductive threads;

identifying a time indicating when the change in capacitance occurred;

generating touch data based on the area of the touch-input using one or more intersections of crossing conductive threads that correspond to the change in capacitance, the touch data comprising a position of the touch-input on the grid of conductive thread and the time indicating when the change in capacitance occurred, the position corresponding to X, Y coordinates on the grid of conductive thread; and

communicating the touch data to a computing device to determine a gesture type from a plurality of gesture types and control the computing device or one or more applications at the computing device based on the gesture type.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the interactive textile covers at least a portion of a three-dimensional outer surface of the hard object.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the interactive textile is integrated within the hard object such that it is not visible.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the second conductive threads are positioned substantially orthogonal to the first conductive threads.

12. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the detecting touch-input comprises detecting the touch-input using self-capacitance sensing.

13. A system comprising:

a textile integrated within a hard object, the textile comprising a plurality of conductive threads woven with non-conductive threads, the textile including;

a first layer comprising first conductive threads of the plurality of conductive threads;

a second layer overlapping the first layer and comprising second conductive threads of the plurality of conductive threads that cross the first conductive threads to form a grid of conductive threads in the textile; and

a third layer not conductive and disposed between the first layer and the second layer to prevent direct contact between the first conductive threads and the second conductive threads;

a textile controller configured to;

detect an area of touch-input corresponding to multiple touch-input points on the grid of conductive threads, the area of touch-input detected based on a change in capacitance of multiple ones of the first conductive threads or of the second conductive threads in the grid of conductive threads;

determine X, Y coordinates on the grid of the conductive thread that correspond to the multiple touch-input points using one or more intersections of crossing conductive threads that correspond to the change in capacitance;

determine a time indicating when the change in capacitance occurred; and

a network interface configured to communicate the X, Y coordinates and the time indicating when the change of capacitance occurred over a network to a computing device to determine a gesture type from a plurality of gesture types and control the computing device based on the gesture type.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, further comprising a gesture manager implemented at the computing device, the gesture manager configured to:

receive the X, Y coordinates of the touch-input; and

control the computing device, or an application at the computing device, based on the touch input.

15. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein injection molding is used to permanently attach the textile to the hard object.

16. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the textile controller is located at the hard object and is connected to the textile via wires.

17. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the textile visibly covers at least a portion of an outer surface of the hard object.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the outer surface of the hard object is three-dimensional.

19. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the multiple touch-input points each correspond to an intersection between one of the multiple ones of the first conductive threads and a crossing conductive thread of the second conductive threads.

20. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the first conductive threads are substantially parallel with one another.