CONTACT TRACKING AND IDENTIFICATION MODULE FOR TOUCH SENSING

• US 20090244033A1
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John G. Elias, Wayne Westerman
• Original Assignee: John G. Elias, Wayne Westerman
• Inventors: Elias, John G., WESTERMAN, Wayne
• Granted Patent: US 8,482,533 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24137 Distances to cluster centroïds
• 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 2203/04104 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 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 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/19173 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1983 Syntactic or structural pattern recognition, e.g. symbolic string recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 : Static hand or arm
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/9622 : using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960725 : Charge-transfer

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

Claims

1. A method of performing operations on a computing system having a touch sensitive surface, the method comprising:

tracking the paths of multiple distinguishable contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices as they move on or near the surface at the same time, wherein tracking is based on at least shape and position data corresponding to the contacts;

determining translation motion information corresponding to one or more of the multiple contacts based on the tracked paths of the contacts;

generating a translation gesture control signal based on the translation motion information.

2. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising tracking the paths of the multiple distinguishable contacts using a sequence of proximity images.

3. The method as described in claim 1 further comprising tracking the paths of multiple distinguishable contacts by scanning a plurality capacitive sensors associated with the touch sensitive surface.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising graphically manipulating, by translating a graphical object on a display.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising panning a display in response to the translation gesture control signal.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising one of vertically and horizontally panning a display in response to the translation gesture control signal.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining translation motion information by computing translation velocity as a weighted average of one or more finger velocities.

8. An apparatus for providing input to a computing system, the apparatus including a touch sensitive surface, the apparatus comprising:

a tracking module for tracking the paths of multiple distinguishable contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices as they move on or near the surface at the same time, wherein tracking is based on at least shape and position data corresponding to the contacts;

a motion component extraction module for extracting translation motion information from one or more of the multiple contacts based on the tracked paths of the contacts;

wherein a translation gesture control signal is provided to the computing system based on the extracted translation motion information.

9. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 further comprising a sequence of proximity images of the multiple distinguishable contacts wherein the tracking module tracks the distinguishable synchronized contacts based on the sequence of proximity images.

10. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 further comprising a plurality of capacitive sensors associated with the touch sensitive surface to generate a sequence of proximity images of the distinguishable synchronized contacts.

11. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 further comprising a display for displaying a graphical object, wherein the translation gesture control signal graphically manipulates, by translating, the graphical object on the display.

12. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 further comprising a display, wherein the display is panned in response to the translation gesture control signal.

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12 wherein the display is panned along one of a horizontal and a vertical axis.

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 wherein the translational motion information comprises a weighted average velocity of one or more finger velocities.

15. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by an apparatus including a touch sensitive surface causes the apparatus to perform operations by causing the apparatus to:

track the paths of multiple distinguishable contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices as they move on or near the surface at the same time, wherein tracking is based on at least shape and position data corresponding to the contacts;

determine translation motion information of one or more of the multiple contacts based on the tracked paths of the contacts; and

generate a translation gesture command based on the extracted translation motion information.

16. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 15 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to scan a plurality of capacitive sensors associated with the touch sensitive surface to obtain the shape and the position of the multiple distinguishable contacts in a sequence of proximity images.

17. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 15 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to track the paths of the multiple distinguishable contacts based on a sequence of proximity images of the contacts.

18. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 15 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to perform a translation manipulation on a graphical object displayed on a display based on the translation gesture command.

19. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 15 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to pan a display based on the translation gesture command.

21. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 15 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to compute a weighted average velocity of one or more finger velocities to determine the translation motion information of the one or more of the multiple contacts.

20. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 22 wherein the instructions cause the apparatus to pan a display along one of a horizontal and a vertical axis based on the translation gesture command.