Touch pad
First Claim
1. A touch pad for acquiring acoustic signals resulting from touch events, comprising:
- a surface having an area in which said touch events may be formed;
a plurality of transducers for acquiring said acoustic signals at a plurality of different locations in said surface;
an arrangement for electrically combining said acoustic signals from a plurality of said different locations into a combined signal; and
an output for supplying representations of said acoustic signals to an analog to digital converter in response to said combined signal.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A touch pad (101) includes transducers (201-204) for receiving acoustic signals resulting from touch events, such as the continuous movement of a fingertip across the surface (105) of the touch pad. The acoustic signals are acquired at different transducer locations in the surface. Signals from different transducers ate combined, preferably in antiphase, to improve signal characteristics. The transducer signals are supplied to a stereo analogue to digital converter (407). Phase differences (706) are obtained and compared (703) with phase difference profiles (607) of known location, in order to identify the location of the touch event. An index (606) is used to identify candidate locations to reduce the amount of processing. Interpolation (705) is used to locate the touch event between profile locations.
-
Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A touch pad for acquiring acoustic signals resulting from touch events, comprising:
-
a surface having an area in which said touch events may be formed;
a plurality of transducers for acquiring said acoustic signals at a plurality of different locations in said surface;
an arrangement for electrically combining said acoustic signals from a plurality of said different locations into a combined signal; and
an output for supplying representations of said acoustic signals to an analog to digital converter in response to said combined signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. An input control device for inputting data into a computer system, comprising:
-
a surface for receiving touch events and generating acoustic signals from a said touch event, and a transducer arrangement for acquiring said acoustic signals at a plurality of different locations in said surface;
an analog to digital converter for digitizing representations of said acoustic signals;
a processor for processing said digitized acoustic signals;
an instruction storage device for storing instructions for said processor such that said instructions stored in said instruction storage device include instruction code sequences executable on said processor to perform the steps of;
(a) acquiring digitized acoustic signals from said analog to digital converter;
(b) extracting phase difference information from a pair of said digitized acoustic signals;
(c) locating a said touch event by processing said phase difference information with reference to a calibrated relationship between said phase difference information and respective known locations; and
(d) supplying input signals to said computer system in response to the location of a said touch event;
a data storage device for storing intermediate data generated by said processor; and
a calibration storage device for storing calibration data associated with said surface. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for acquiring and processing acoustic signals arising from an acoustic interaction between an object and a surface, the method comprising the operations of:
-
(a) acquiring the said acoustic signals at a plurality of locations in said surface;
(b) extracting phase difference information from said acoustic signals; and
(c) locating the said acoustic interaction on the basis of comparisons between said phase difference information and a plurality of phase difference profiles whose respective locations are known. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for navigating a graphical user interface in response to acoustic signals generated by a acoustic interaction between a finger and a surface, the method comprising the operations of:
-
(a) acquiring the said acoustic signals at a plurality of locations in said surface;
(b) extracting phase difference information from a pair of said acoustic signals;
(c) locating the said acoustic interaction by processing said phase difference information with reference to a calibrated relationship between phase difference characteristics and respective locations; and
(d) updating said graphical user interface in response to the location of said acoustic interaction.
-
-
19. A method for calibrating an acoustic touch pad by acquiring and processing acoustic signals resulting from sound supplied to said touch pad at selected locations on the surface of said touch pad;
- the method comprising repeated operations of;
(a) selecting a location for calibration;
(b) supplying a sound to said surface at said selected location;
(c) acquiring the said acoustic signals from a plurality of transducers in said surface;
(d) extracting a location-related profile from said acoustic signals; and
(e) storing said location-related profile in association with said selected location. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
- the method comprising repeated operations of;
-
23. A computer readable medium having program instructions encoded upon it for processing acoustic signals resulting from user touch events formed on the surface of a touch pad by executing the steps of:
-
(a) acquiring digitized forms of said acoustic signals from an analog to digital converter;
(b) extracting phase difference information from a pair of said digitized acoustic signals; and
(c) locating a said user touch event in two-dimensions of said surface by processing said phase difference information with reference to a calibrated relationship between said phase difference information and respective known locations. - View Dependent Claims (24, 26)
-
-
25. A computer readable medium having a data structure encoded upon it that represents calibration data for an acoustic touch pad, said data structure defining:
-
(a) relationships between location-related profiles and respective known locations on said touch pad; and
(b) an index for candidate locations.
-
Specification