Touch panel apparatus, method of detecting touch area, and computer product

• US 20060017709A1
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Okano, Akihiro
• Application Number:
  US11/185,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20060017709A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen

Abstract

A touch panel apparatus includes a touch panel provided on a display; a touch-area detecting unit that detects a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and a determining unit that compares, when the touch-area detecting unit detects two touch areas, dimensions of the two touch areas, validates a touch area having a smaller dimension, and invalidates a touch area having a larger dimension.

Claims

1. A touch panel apparatus comprising:

a touch panel provided on a display;

a touch-area detecting unit that detects a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

a determining unit that compares, when the touch-area detecting unit detects two touch areas, dimensions of the two touch areas, validates a touch area having a smaller dimension, and invalidates a touch area having a larger dimension.

2. The touch panel apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the determining unit further compares temporal change rates of the dimensions of the two touch areas, validates a touch area having a smaller dimension and a larger change rate, and invalidates a touch area having a larger dimension and a smaller change rate.

3. The touch panel apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a registering unit that registers information on two touch areas obtained by having a user use the touch panel in advance, as user profile information, wherein

when the touch-area detecting unit detects two touch areas, the determining unit determines a validation of the touch areas based on a correlation between the two touch areas obtained from the user profile information and the two touch areas detected.

4. A touch panel apparatus comprising:

a touch panel provided on a display;

a touch-area detecting unit that detects a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

a determining unit that compares, when the touch-area detecting unit detects two touch areas, temporal change rates of dimensions of the two touch areas, validates a touch area having a larger change rate, and invalidates a touch area having a smaller change rate.

5. The touch panel apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a registering unit that registers information on two touch areas obtained by having a user use the touch panel in advance, as user profile information, wherein

when the touch-area detecting unit detects two touch areas, the determining unit determines a validation of the touch areas based on a correlation between the two touch areas obtained from the user profile information and the two touch areas detected.

6. A method of detecting a touch area on a touch panel, the method comprising:

detecting a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

determining including

comparing, when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, dimensions of the two touch areas;

validating a touch area having a smaller dimension; and

invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein

the comparing includes comparing temporal change rates of the dimensions of the two touch areas;

the validating includes validating a touch area having a smaller dimension and a larger change rate; and

the invalidating includes invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension and a smaller change rate.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising registering information on two touch areas obtained by having a user use the touch panel in advance, as user profile information, wherein

when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, the determining includes determining a validation of the touch areas based on a correlation between the two touch areas obtained from the user profile information and the two touch areas detected.

9. A method of detecting a touch area on a touch panel, the method comprising:

detecting a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

determining including

comparing, when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, temporal change rates of dimensions of the two touch areas;

validating a touch area having a larger change rate; and

invalidating a touch area having a smaller change rate.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein

the comparing includes comparing temporal change rates of the dimensions of the two touch areas;

the validating includes validating a touch area having a smaller dimension and a larger change rate; and

the invalidating includes invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension and a smaller change rate.

11. A computer-readable recording medium that stores a computer program for detecting a touch area on a touch panel, wherein the computer program causes a computer to execute:

detecting a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

determining including

comparing, when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, dimensions of the two touch areas;

validating a touch area having a smaller dimension; and

invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension.

12. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 11, wherein

the comparing includes comparing temporal change rates of the dimensions of the two touch areas;

the validating includes validating a touch area having a smaller dimension and a larger change rate; and

the invalidating includes invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension and a smaller change rate.

13. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 11, wherein

the computer program further causes the computer to execute registering information on two touch areas obtained by having a user use the touch panel in advance, as user profile information, and

when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, the determining includes determining a validation of the touch areas based on a correlation between the two touch areas obtained from the user profile information and the two touch areas detected.

14. A computer-readable recording medium that stores a computer program for detecting a touch area on a touch panel, wherein the computer program causes a computer to execute:

detecting a touch area when an object touches on a surface of the touch panel; and

determining including

comparing, when two touch areas are detected at the detecting, temporal change rates of dimensions of the two touch areas;

validating a touch area having a larger change rate; and

invalidating a touch area having a smaller change rate.

15. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 14, wherein

the comparing includes comparing temporal change rates of the dimensions of the two touch areas;

the validating includes validating a touch area having a smaller dimension and a larger change rate; and

the invalidating includes invalidating a touch area having a larger dimension and a smaller change rate.

16. A touch panel apparatus comprising:

a touch detecting unit that detects touch of an object on a surface of a touch panel; and

an area determining unit that determines touch areas of each touch when the touch detecting unit detects a plurality of touches any one of simultaneously and during a predetermined time period; and

a validating unit that validates a touch as a touch of an object based on touch area.

17. The touch panel apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:

a temporal-change-rate determining unit that determines temporal change rates of the touch areas detected by the area determining unit, wherein

the validating unit validates a touch as a touch of the object based on a temporal change rate.

18. The touch panel apparatus as set forth in claim 16, wherein the validating unit validates a touch as a touch of the object based on the smallest touch area.

19. A touch panel apparatus comprising:

a touch detecting unit that detects touch of an object on a surface of a touch panel; and

an area determining unit that determines touch areas of each touch when the touch detecting unit detects a plurality of touches any one of simultaneously and during a predetermined time period;

a temporal-change-rate determining unit that determines temporal change rates of the touch areas determined by the area determining unit; and

a validating unit that validates a touch that corresponds to a largest temporal change rate as a touch of an object.