Input System

• US 20080266271A1
• Filed: 06/06/2005
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Berkel, Cornelis, George, David S.
• Application Number:
  US11/570,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20080266271A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-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 and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/955 using a capacitive detector
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960775 Emitter-receiver or "fringe" type detection, i.e. one or more field emitting electrodes and corresponding one or more receiving electrodes

Abstract

A user input system (40) in which an output from a cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) (also known as an electric field object sensing s system) is combined with an output from a touchscreen device (15). An output from the user input system (40) may comprise position information derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and indications of touch events derived from the touchscreen device (15). Another possibility is for sensing signals (S₁, S₂, S₃,S₄) derived from the cross-capacitance object to sensing system (30) to be processed in combination with position information derived from the touchscreen device (15) to provide updated parameters (P₁, P₂, P₃, P₄) for an algorithm used to determine position information from further sensing signals (S₁, S₂, S₃, S₄) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30).

Claims

1. A user input system (40), comprising:

a cross-capacitance object sensing system (30);

a touchscreen device (15);

the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and the touchscreen device (15) being arranged such that an input area of the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) corresponds substantially to a display and input area (14) of the touchscreen device (15); and

processing means for combining an output derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) with an output derived from the touchscreen device (15).

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processing means are arranged for using an algorithm to determine position information from sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30);

and

the processing means are further arranged for combining sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) with position information (x, y) derived from the touchscreen device (15) to provide updated parameters (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) for the algorithm to use when determining position information (x, y, z) from further sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30).

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processing means are arranged for processing inputs in terms of sub-areas (14a-e) of the input area of the cross-capacitance object sensing system (14);

and such that updated parameters (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) are provided for the algorithm dependent upon the sub-area (14a-e) from which the position information (x, y) is derived from the touchscreen device (15).

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processing means are arranged for providing an output from the user input system comprising position information (x, y, z) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and indications of touch events derived from the touchscreen device (15).

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processing means are arranged for providing an output from the user input system comprising position information (x, y, z), derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and the touchscreen device (15), and indications of touch events derived from the touchscreen device (15).

6. A method of processing user input, comprising:

providing an output from a cross-capacitance object sensing system (30);

providing an output from a touchscreen device (15);

the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and the touchscreen device (15) being arranged such that an input area of the cross-capacitance object sensing system (14) corresponds substantially to a display and input area of the touchscreen device; and

combining the output derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) with the output derived from the touchscreen device (15).

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein:

the output from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) comprises sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄); and

the output from the touchscreen device (15) comprises position information (x, y);

the method further comprising;

processing the sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) in combination with the position information (x, y) output from the touchscreen device (15) to provide updated parameter values (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) for use in a position-determining algorithm; and

using the position-determining algorithm with the updated parameter values (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) to provide position information (x, y, z) from further sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) provided by the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30).

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein user inputs are processed in terms of sub-areas (14a-e) of the input area (14) of the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30);

and the updated parameters (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) are provided for the algorithm dependent upon the sub-area (14a-e) from which the position information (x, y) is derived from the touchscreen device (15).

9. A method according to claim 6, further comprising providing an output from the user input system comprising position information (x, y, z) derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and indications of touch events derived from the touchscreen device (15).

10. A method according to claim 6, further comprising providing an output from the user input system comprising position information (x, y, z), derived from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and the touchscreen device (15), and indications of touch events derived from the touchscreen device (15).

11. A processor adapted to process sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) from a cross-capacitance object sensing system (30) and position information (x, y) from a touchscreen device (15) to provide updated parameters (p₁, p₂, p₃, p₄) for use in an algorithm for determining position information (x, y, z) from further sensing signals (s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄) from the cross-capacitance object sensing system (30).