Touch detecting apparatus and touch detection method

• US 10,303,301 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2017
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Japan Display Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Japan Display Incorporated
• Inventors: Uehara, Toshinori, Mizuhashi, Hiroshi, Soya, Toshio
• Primary Examiner(s): Wills-Burns, Chineyere D
• Application Number:
  US15/437,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20170249051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 345174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04107 Shielding in digitiser, i.e. guard or shielding arrangements, mostly for capacitive touchscreens, e.g. driven shields, driven grounds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• 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

According to an aspect, a touch detecting apparatus includes: three or more detectors; a generating circuit that performs generation for generating a plurality of pieces of output data corresponding to a plurality of patterns and having resolution lower than resolution corresponding to the number of the detectors based on outputs from the detectors; a calculating circuit that performs calculation for calculating, for each of the detectors, a composite value to be used to derive a detection result of each of the detectors based on the pieces of output data corresponding to the patterns.

Claims

1. A touch detecting apparatus comprising:

a plurality of detectors that are three or more detectors and aligned in at least one direction and that individually detect a touch operation;

a generating circuit that performs generation for generating a plurality of low-resolution data patterns each having resolution lower than resolution corresponding to the number of the detectors based on outputs from the detectors;

a calculating circuit that performs calculation for calculating, for each of the detectors, a composite value to be used to derive a detection result of each of the detectors based on the low-resolution data patterns; and

a determining circuit that performs determination for re-determining a new value for an initial value corresponding to a predetermined value set for each of the detectors, based on a difference between the initial value and the composite value calculated for each of the detectors,

wherein a first output is obtained by integrating outputs from a plurality of first detectors that are a group of the detectors consecutively aligned in a first number of rows adjacent to each other, the first number being constant and no less than three,

wherein the first detectors aligned in the first number of rows are driven simultaneously and shifted sequentially by a predetermined shift amount in a shift direction, wherein the generating circuit generate each of the low-resolution data patterns by integrating a plurality of the first outputs, the low-resolution data patterns including at least a first pattern, a second pattern, and a third pattern,

wherein a combination of the first detectors of the first pattern, a combination of the first detectors of the second pattern, a combination of the first detectors of the third pattern are different from each other, wherein an arrangement of the first detectors of the second pattern is shifted by the predetermined shift amount form an arrangement of the first detectors of the first pattern, and an arrangement of the first detectors of the third pattern is shifted from the arrangement of the first detectors of the second pattern by the predetermined shift amount,

wherein the predetermined shift amount is smaller than a length of an area of the first detectors of the first number of rows in the shift direction, the low-resolution data patterns including the first pattern, second pattern, and a third pattern are integrated to generate a single image.

2. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a smaller number of the detectors than the number of the detectors included in a single group are positioned in both end areas in the alignment direction of the detectors, outputs from the detectors included in the both end areas are integrated, the both end areas sandwiching an area in which the detectors included in at least one group are arranged.

3. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determining circuit causes the calculation to be performed again based on a result of comparison of the difference between the initial value and the composite value with a predetermined threshold.

4. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the detectors are arranged in two directions orthogonal to each other.

5. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a selecting device capable of individually switching, in the two directions, the combinations of the detectors serving as a single group.

6. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the detectors are a self-capacitive capacitance sensor.

7. The touch detecting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the detectors are a mutual capacitive capacitance sensor.

8. A touch detection method for performing touch detection based on outputs from a plurality of detectors that are three or more detectors and aligned in at least one direction and that individually detect a touch operation, the touch detection method comprising:

generating a plurality of low-resolution data patterns each having resolution lower than resolution corresponding to the number of the detectors based on outputs from the detectors;

calculating, for each of the detectors, a composite value to be used to derive a detection result of each of the detectors based on the low-resolution data patterns; and

re-determining a new value for an initial value corresponding to a predetermined value set for each of the detectors based on difference between the initial value and the composite value calculated for each of the detectors,

wherein a first output is obtained by integrating outputs from a plurality of first detectors group that are a group of the detectors consecutively aligned in a first number of rows adjacent to each other, the first number being constant and no less than three, wherein the first detectors aligned in the first number of rows are driven simultaneously and shifted sequentially by a predetermined shift amount in a shift direction,

wherein a plurality of the first outputs are integrated to generate each of the low-resolution data patterns including at least a first pattern, a second pattern, and a third pattern,

wherein a combination of the first detectors of the first pattern, a combination of first detectors of the second pattern, a combination of the first detectors of the third pattern are different from each other, wherein an arrangement of the first detectors of the second pattern is shifted by the predetermined shift amount form an arrangement of the first detectors of the first pattern, and an arrangement of the first detectors of the third pattern is shifted from the arrangement of the first detectors of the second pattern by the predetermined shift amount,

wherein the predetermined shift amount is smaller than a length of an area of the first detectors of the first number of rows in the shift direction, and the low-resolution data patterns including the first pattern, second pattern, and a third pattern are integrated to generate a single image.