SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERFACING APPLICATIONS PROCESSOR TO TOUCHSCREEN DISPLAY FOR REDUCED DATA TRANSFER

• US 20100149121A1
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chan, Andrew, Ali, Yassar A., Zhang, Feihua, Blankenship, Timothy L., Alexander, Daniel D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,075,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers

Abstract

System and method for substantially reducing an involvement of an applications processor in receiving data from a touchscreen display. In one aspect, the system includes a controller may be configured in an autonomous mode where it automatically measures the touchscreen display based configuration information received from the applications processor, determines notable events based on the measurement data, stores data and event identifiers related to the notable events in a memory, and sends a notification to the applications processor when event data is available In another aspect, the system includes a controller that filters user interactions events and transmits data related to only notable events to the applications processor. Because of the autonomous and event filtering operations of the touchscreen controller, there are substantially less communications between the controller and the applications processor. This improves the speed and efficiency of the applications processor.

Claims

1. A method of interfacing a position-indicating device with an applications processor, comprising:

sensing a plurality of events related to a user interacting with the position-indicating device;

filtering the events to identify one or more predetermined notable events; and

sending data related to the one or more predetermined notable events to the applications processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the position-indicating device comprises a touchscreen display.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more predetermined notable events comprises a touching of the touchscreen display by the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more predetermined notable events comprises a release of the touching of the touchscreen display by the user.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more predetermined notable events comprises a dragging of the touch across the touchscreen display.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more predetermined notable events comprises a dragging of the touch across the touchscreen display that reaches or exceeds a boundary of a selected aperture.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the data related to the one or more predetermined notable events in a memory.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the memory comprises a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending an interrupt to the applications processor when data related to the one or more predetermined notable events is available for the applications processor.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending status information as to whether data related to one or more events is available in response to being polled by the applications processor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data related to the one or more predetermined notable events comprises:

a position coordinate related to the one or more predetermined notable events; and

an identifier or tag related to the type of the one or more predetermined notable events.

12. A controller for interfacing an applications processor with a position-indicating device, comprising:

an interface;

a memory; and

a control module adapted to;

measure the position-indicating device to generate data;

analyze the data to determine whether it relates to a notable event;

store event data related to the notable event in the memory; and

send a signal to the applications processor via the interface when event data is available for access by the applications processor.

13. The controller of claim 12, further comprising a driver/sensor through which the control module measures the position-indicating device.

14. The controller of claim 12, further comprising an event filter adapted to define one or more notable events.

15. The controller of claim 12, further comprising a spatial filter adapted to define one or more notable events based on a position change of the position-indicating device.

16. A method of interfacing a position-indicating device with an applications processor, comprising:

receiving configuration information from the applications processor;

automatically measuring the position-indicating device based on the configuration information to generate data;

storing the data in a memory; and

notifying the applications processor that data in the memory is available for access.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising analyzing the data to determine whether it relates to a notable event, wherein storing the data comprises storing the data in the memory only if the data relates to the notable event.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the configuration information specifies a rate of measuring the position-indicating device, and wherein a frequency of measuring the position-indicating device is based on the specified rate.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the configuration information specifies a measurement criteria of the position-indicating device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the measurement criteria comprises a coordinate in one or more dimensions of a current position of the position-indicating device, or other characteristic related to the current position of the position-indicating device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the configuration information defines the notable event.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the notable event includes an initial touch of the position-indicating device, a touch release of the position-indicating device, or a movement of the position-indicating device that exceeds a defined distance.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein automatically measuring the position-indicating device is initiated upon detecting an initial interaction of the position-indicating device by a user.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

operating in a relatively low power mode while not measuring the position-indicating device; and

operating in a relatively high power mode while measuring the position-indicating device.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

generating an identifier related to the notable event; and

storing the identifier with the corresponding data in the memory.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein notifying the applications processor that event data in the memory is available comprises:

generating an asserted logic signal when event data is available in the memory; and

generating an unasserted logic signal when there is no event data available in the memory.

27. The method of claim 17, further comprising sending status information as to whether data related to one or more events is available in response to being polled by the applications processor.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the position-indicating device comprises a touchscreen display.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein the memory comprises a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory device.

30. A controller for interfacing an applications processor with a position-indicating device, comprising:

an interface;

a memory; and

a control module adapted to;

receive configuration information from the applications processor via the interface;

automatically measure the position-indicating device to generate data based on the configuration information;

store the data in the memory; and

send a signal to the applications processor via the interface when data is available for access by the applications processor.

31. The controller of claim 30, wherein the control module is further adapted to:

analyze the data to determine whether it relates to a notable event; and

store the data in the memory only if the data relates to the notable event.

32. The controller of claim 31, wherein the configuration information specifies a rate to measure the position-indicating device, and wherein the control module is adapted to automatically measure the position-indicating device based on the rate.

33. The controller of claim 31, wherein the configuration information defines a measurement criteria of the position-indicating device, and wherein the control module is adapted to measure the position-indicating device based on the measurement criteria.

34. The controller of claim 31, wherein the configuration information defines one or more notable events.

35. The controller of claim 31, wherein the control module is adapted to operate in a lower power mode when not measuring the position-indicating device, and operate in a higher power mode when measuring the position-indicating device.