TOUCH SENSING WITH TOUCH DOWN AND LIFT OFF SENSITIVITY

• US 20080018618A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Original Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Inventors: Hill, Nicholas, Sullivan, Darius
• Granted Patent: US 8,217,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0436 in which generating transducers and detecting transducers are attached to a single acoustic waves transmission substrate

Abstract

A touch sensing device includes a plurality of sensors and an emitting transducer coupled to a touch panel. The transducer induces bending waves in the touch panel. The sensors sense bending waves in the touch panel and generate a bending wave signal responsive to the sensed bending waves. A controller identifies an untouched condition signal responsive to the induced bending waves. The controller compares the untouched condition signal to the bending wave signal, and detects a touch on the touch panel based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A touch sensing device, comprising:

a touch panel;

a transducer coupled to the touch panel and configured to induce bending waves in the touch panel;

a plurality of sensors coupled to the touch panel, the plurality of sensors configured to sense the induced bending waves and generate an untouched condition signal responsive to the induced bending waves, the plurality of sensors further configured to sense bending waves modified by a touch on the touch panel and to generate a bending wave signal responsive to the bending waves modified by the touch; and

a controller coupled to the plurality of sensors, the controller configured to compare the untouched condition signal to the bending wave signal after the signals are corrected for frequency dispersion, and to detect a touch on the touch panel based on the comparison.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the transducer is configured to induce bending waves in the touch panel at a frequency greater than or equal to half the sampling frequency used by the controller.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the transducer is configured to induce bending waves in the touch panel at a frequency associated with an aliased untouched condition signal.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the aliased untouched condition signal comprises a signal having a frequency less than or equal to an audio band frequency.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the aliased untouched condition signal comprises a DC signal.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configure to compare the untouched condition signal and the bending wave signal by comparing reference filter coefficients selected to cancel the untouched condition signal to filter coefficients calculated to cancel the bending wave signal.

7. A touch system, comprising:

a touch screen, comprising;

a touch panel;

a transducer coupled to the touch panel and configured to induce bending waves in the touch panel;

a plurality of sensors coupled to the touch panel, the plurality of sensors configured to sense the induced bending waves and generate an untouched condition signal responsive to the induced bending waves, the plurality of sensors further configured to sense bending waves modified by a touch on the touch panel and to generate a bending wave signal responsive to the bending waves modified by the touch; and

a controller coupled to the plurality of sensors, the controller configured to compare the untouched condition signal to the bending wave signal after correcting the signals for frequency dispersion, and detect a touch on the touch panel based on the comparison;

a display viewable through the touch screen and configured to display information; and

a processor coupled to the display and configured to process the information to be displayed on the display.

8. The touch system of claim 7, wherein the display comprises a light emitting diode display, a liquid crystal display, or a cathode ray tube display.

9. A method for determining touch information, comprising:

inducing bending waves in a touch panel using a driving signal;

generating an untouched condition signal associated with the induced bending waves;

generating a bending wave signal modified by a touch on the touch panel;

comparing the bending wave signal and the untouched condition signal after the signals are corrected for frequency dispersion; and

detecting the touch on the touch panel based on the comparison.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein inducing the bending waves in the touch panel using the driving signal comprises inducing the bending waves in the touch panel using a driving signal associated with an aliased untouched condition signal.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating the untouched condition signal based on non-touch related conditions.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating the untouched condition signal due to component drift.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the bending wave signal and the untouched condition signal comprises comparing an amplitude of the untouched condition signal to an amplitude of the bending wave signal.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the bending wave signal and the untouched condition signal comprises comparing a spectrum of the untouched condition signal to a spectrum of the bending wave signal.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the bending wave signal and the untouched condition signal comprises:

calculating reference filter coefficients that cancel the untouched condition signal;

calculating filter coefficients that cancel the bending wave signal; and

comparing the filter coefficients of the bending wave signal to the reference filter coefficients.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

comparing the bending wave signal and the untouched condition signal after the touch is detected; and

detecting a touch lift off from the touch panel based on the comparison.

17. A touch sensing method, comprising:

detecting a touch on a touch panel by one or more of a plurality of touch detection processes, at least one of the plurality of touch detection processes based on a signal generated in response to a bending wave induced in the touch panel by a driving signal and corrected for frequency dispersion; and

initiating a touch location process after detecting the touch.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one touch detection process comprises:

generating a bending wave signal modified by a touch on the touch panel;

comparing the bending wave signal and the signal generated by the induced bending wave after the signals are corrected for frequency dispersion; and

detecting the touch on the touch panel based on the comparison.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein comparing the bending wave signal and the signal generated by the induced bending wave comprises comparing filter coefficients calculated to cancel the bending wave signal modified by a touch to filter coefficients calculated to cancel the signal generated by the induced bending wave.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein comparing the bending wave signal and the signal generated by the induced bending wave comprises comparing an amplitude or spectrum of the bending wave signal to an amplitude or spectrum of the signal generated by the induced bending wave.