FINGER GESTURE RECOGNITION FOR TOUCH SENSING SURFACE

• US 20100149115A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: Park, Tony, Lu, Luther, Chow, Nelson
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• 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 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• 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

Abstract

Touch sensor methods, devices and systems are disclosed. One embodiment of the present invention pertains to a method comprising monitoring a finger movement along a touch sensing surface based on position data of a finger touching the touch sensing surface, where the position data is obtained by locating a position of a force applied by the finger in a coordinate of the touch sensing surface. In addition, the method comprises generating direction data associated with the finger movement if the finger movement travels for more than a threshold distance. Furthermore, the method comprises determining a finger gesture which corresponds to the finger movement using a lookup table having multiple preconfigured finger gestures based on the direction data.

Claims

1. A method for recognizing a finger gesture on a touch sensing surface, comprising:

monitoring a finger movement on a touch sensing surface based on position data of a finger contacting the touch sensing surface;

generating direction data associated with the finger movement if the finger movement travels for more than a threshold distance, wherein the direction data corresponds to a plurality of predetermined directions; and

determining a finger gesture which corresponds to the finger movement using a lookup table having a plurality of preconfigured finger gestures based on the direction data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the finger movement comprises a plurality of linear finger movements.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating direction data associated with the finger movement is performed for each of the plurality of linear finger movements if a distance traveled by each of the plurality of linear finger movements is greater than the threshold distance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the direction data comprises a primary direction of each of the plurality of linear finger movements.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the primary direction of each of the plurality of linear finger movements is determined by an angle of each of the plurality of linear finger movements with respect to a y-axis.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined directions comprise north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the direction data is stored using an array.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the lookup table comprises, for each gesture, a number of direction changes involved in the gesture, and corresponding directions taken by the gesture.

9. A touch sensing device, comprising:

a touch sensing surface for sensing finger movement along the touch sensing surface; and

a processor coupled to the touch sensing surface for calculating respective position data associated with the finger movement, and for determining a finger gesture which corresponds to the finger movement by generating direction data associated with the finger movement if the finger movement travels for more than a threshold value and by retrieving the finger gesture from a lookup table having a plurality of preconfigured finger gestures based on the direction data, wherein the direction data comprises a number of direction changes involved in the finger movement and a number of each direction taken by the finger movement.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the finger movement comprises a plurality of linear finger movements.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of linear finger movements is recognized as valid if a distance traveled by each of the plurality of linear finger movements is greater than the threshold value, and wherein each one of the plurality of linear finger movements is recognized as a noise if the distance traveled by each one of the plurality of linear finger movements is less than the threshold value.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the plurality of predetermined directions comprise north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the touch sensing surface comprises one of a single layer touch sensing surface;

a two layer touch sensing surface; and

a multilayer touch sensing surface.

14. The device of claim 9, wherein the touch sensing surface comprises:

a touch screen;

a touch pad;

a track pad; and

a touch panel.

15. The device of claim 9, wherein the processor is implemented using a programmable device.

16. The device of claim 9, further comprising a first memory coupled to the processor for storing the lookup table.

17. The device of claim 16, further comprising a second memory for storing the direction data.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the finger gesture comprises a single finger gesture.

19. A computer readable medium for recognizing a finger gesture on a touch sensing surface having instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

monitoring a finger movement on a touch sensing surface based on position data of a finger contacting the touch sensing surface;

generating direction data associated with the finger movement if the finger movement travels for more than a threshold distance, wherein the direction data corresponds to a plurality of predetermined directions; and

determining a finger gesture which corresponds to the finger movement using a lookup table having a plurality of preconfigured finger gestures based on the direction data.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the finger movement comprises a plurality of linear finger movements.