Likelihood detection of pressing finger in two-finger touch

• US 10,338,718 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2016
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Shubha
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Subedi, Deeprose
• Application Number:
  US15/087,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20170285796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04144 using an array of force sensing means position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells G06F3/0447
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation

Abstract

A processing system for a force sensing device, including: sensor circuitry that receives resulting signals from force sensors; and processing circuitry that: determines a first location of a first input object and a second location of a second input object on a surface; determines force values for the force sensors based on the resulting signals; obtains a first plurality of expected force values for the force sensors based on the first location and a second plurality of expected force values for the force sensors based on the second location; executes a first comparison of the first plurality of expected force values to the force values; executes a second comparison of the second plurality of expected force values to the force values; and determines, based on the first comparison and the second comparison, that the first input object is applying an input force to the surface.

Claims

1. A processing system for a force sensing device, the processing system comprising:

sensor circuitry configured to receive resulting signals from a plurality of force sensors; and

processing circuitry configured to;

determine a first location of a first input object and a second location of a second input object on a surface of the force sensing device;

determine a plurality of measured deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on the resulting signals;

obtain a first plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the first location;

obtain a second plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the second location;

calculate a first deviation between the first plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections;

calculate a second deviation between the second plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections; and

determine, based on the first deviation being less than the second deviation, that the first input object is applying more force to the surface than the second input object.

2. The processing system of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of expected deflections and the second plurality of expected deflections are calculated based on a bending model.

3. The processing system of claim 2, wherein the bending model is an empirical bending model and constants of the empirical bending model are acquired during a calibration of the surface.

4. A method for operating a force sensor device comprising a surface, comprising:

receiving resulting signals from a plurality of force sensors;

determining a first location of a first input object and a second location of a second input object on the surface;

determining a plurality of measured deflections associated with the plurality force sensors based on the resulting signals;

obtaining a first plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the first location;

obtaining a second plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the second location;

calculating a first deviation between the first plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections;

calculating a second deviation between the second plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections; and

determining, based on the first deviation being less than the second deviation, that the first input object is applying more force to the surface than the second input object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the input force being applied at the first location is a first estimated force calculated by multiplying a compensation coefficient for the first location with a sum of the plurality of measured deflections; and

the first estimated force is calculated before the first plurality of expected deflections is obtained.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the input force being applied at the second location is a second estimated force calculated by multiplying a compensation coefficient for the second location with the sum of the plurality of measured deflections; and

the second estimated force is calculated before the second plurality of expected deflections is obtained.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first plurality of expected deflections is calculated based on a bending model and the first estimated force.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the second plurality of expected deflections is calculated based on a bending model and the second estimated force.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

normalizing, before calculating the first deviation, the plurality of measured deflections by dividing each of the plurality of measured deflections by the largest measured deflection in the plurality of measured deflections.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

normalizing, before calculating the first deviation, the first plurality of expected deflections by dividing each of the first plurality of expected deflections by the largest expected deflection in the first plurality of expected deflections; and

normalizing, before calculating the second deviation, the second plurality of expected deflections by dividing each of the second plurality of expected deflections by the largest expected deflection in the second plurality of expected deflections.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first plurality of expected deflections is calculated based on a bending model.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the bending model is an empirical bending model and constants of the empirical bending model are acquired during a calibration of the surface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the acquired constants of the empirical bending model are stored in a lookup-table.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the first deviation is a first Euclidean distance between the plurality of measured deflections and the first plurality of expected deflections; and

the second deviation is a second Euclidean distance between the plurality of measured deflections and the second plurality of expected deflections.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein the first position is determined using at least one of the plurality of force sensors.

16. An input device, comprising:

a surface;

a plurality of force sensors; and

a processing system that;

receives resulting signals from a plurality of force sensors;

determines a first location of a first input object and a second location of a second input object on the surface;

determines a plurality of measured deflections associated with the plurality force sensors based on the resulting signals;

obtains a first plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the first location;

obtains a second plurality of expected deflections associated with the plurality of force sensors based on an input force being applied at the second location;

calculates a first deviation between the first plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections;

calculates a second deviation between the second plurality of expected deflections and the plurality of measured deflections; and

determines, based on the first deviation being less than the second deviation, that the first input object is applying more force to the surface than the second input object.

17. The input device of claim 16, further comprising a plurality of position sensors, wherein the plurality of force sensors has a first pitch, and wherein the plurality of position sensors has a second pitch that is different than the first pitch.

18. The input device of claim 16, wherein the plurality of force sensors is arranged in an array and have a pitch, wherein the pitch is non-linear across the array and decreases from the center toward a perimeter of the array.

19. The input device of claim 16, wherein the surface is bonded to a support along at least a portion of the perimeter of the input surface.