Touch-based user interface user selection accuracy enhancement

• US 20110109573A1
• Filed: 09/21/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Inventors: Deslippe, Mark H., Parker, Robert Preston, Sakalowsky, John Michael, Carvajal, Santiago
• Granted Patent: US 8,692,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A user interface for an audio/visual device takes measurements of a touch sensor that are indicative of the current position of a tip of a finger of a user against a touch-sensitive surface of the touch sensor on a recurring basis, maintains a predetermined quantity of those measurements in a storage accessible to a processing device implementing at least a portion of the user interface, and employs measurements taken of the touch sensor at a predetermined amount of time into the past in response to an indication of the user having exerted increased pressure against the touch-sensitive surface via the tip to determine the position of that tip at a time relatively shortly before the user began to exert the increase in pressure.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a touch sensor providing a touch-sensitive surface enabling the position of a tip of a digit of a user to be recurringly determined as the user moves the tip across the touch-sensitive surface while keeping the tip in contact with the touch-sensitive surface, and able to detect an increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip to make a selection;

a processing device; and

a storage accessible to the processing device and storing a sequence of instructions that when executed by the processing device, causes the processing device to;

take a set of measurements from the touch sensor indicative of the position of the tip on a recurring basis;

maintain a predetermined quantity of the most recently taken sets of measurements indicative of the position of the tip in the storage; and

in response to receiving an indication of an increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip being detected;

access one of the sets of measurements indicative of the position of the tip taken at a predetermined amount of time into the past; and

employ the one of the sets of measurements to determine a position of the tip at a time prior to the increase in pressure being exerted against the touch-sensitive surface.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the touch sensor employs capacitive sensing technology comprising a plurality of conductive pads underneath the touch-sensitive surface and formed on a substrate to enable the position of a tip of a digit of a user to be recurringly determined;

the substrate is disposed on a casing of a device in a manner that is inwardly movable to permit the touch-sensitive surface to be pressed inward into the casing in response to the increase in pressure exerted by the user through the tip; and

the touch sensor comprises a switch to detect inward movement of the substrate as the indication of the increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein in further response to receiving an indication of an increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip being detected, the processing device is further caused to employ what is determined to be the position of the tip at the time prior to the increase in pressure being exerted against the touch-sensitive surface to determine what menu item of a plurality of menu items was intended to be selected by the user through the exerting of the increase in pressure against the touch-sensitive surface.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processing device is caused to display the plurality of menu items on a display element.

5. A method comprising:

recurringly taking a set of measurements from a touch sensor indicative of the position of the tip on a touch-sensitive surface of the touch sensor as a user moves the tip across the touch-sensitive surface while keeping the tip in contact with the touch-sensitive surface;

maintaining a predetermined quantity of the most recently taken sets of measurements indicative of the position of the tip in the storage; and

in response to receiving an indication of an increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip being detected, employing the one of the sets of measurements to determine a position of the tip at a time prior to the increase in pressure being exerted against the touch-sensitive surface.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

displaying a menu on a display element in which the menu comprises a plurality of menu items selectable by a user through operation of the touch sensor via the tip; and

further response to receiving an indication of an increase in pressure exerted against the touch-sensitive surface through the tip being detected, employing what is determined to be the position of the tip at the time prior to the increase in pressure being exerted against the touch-sensitive surface to determine what menu item of a plurality of menu items was intended to be selected by the user through the exerting of the increase in pressure against the touch-sensitive surface.