TOUCH SYSTEM AND POSITIONING METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20110304590A1
• Filed: 05/25/2011
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PixArt Imaging Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PixArt Imaging Incorporated
• Inventors: SU, Tzung Min, LIN, Chih Hsin
• Granted Patent: US 8,587,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/175
• 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 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421

Abstract

The present invention provides a positioning method for a touch system that obtains a pair of current correct positions according to the following steps: obtaining two pairs of possible positions from a current frame to be compared with a pair of previous correct positions obtained from a previous frame; or comparing four pairs of possible positions with each other obtained from the current frame. The present invention further provides a touch system.

Claims

1. A positioning method for a touch system, the touch system comprising a first image sensor and a second image sensor for acquiring image windows looking across a touch surface and containing images of two pointers operating above the touch surface, the positioning method comprising the steps of:

acquiring a first image window with the first image sensor;

acquiring a second image window with the second image sensor;

identifying numbers of pointer images in the first image window and the second image window;

generating a two-dimensional space according to the first image window and the second image window when the first image window and the second image window contain different numbers of pointer images;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the first image sensor with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the first image window and connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the second image sensor with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the second image window to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four first internal bisectors of the quadrilateral; and

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the first internal bisectors thereby generating first possible positions.

2. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

defining two first possible positions associated with the two first internal bisectors of two opposite corners of the quadrilateral as a pair of first possible positions.

3. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pair of previous correct positions of the pointers with respect to the touch surface was determined in a previous sample time before the first image sensor acquires the first image window and the second image sensor acquires the second image window, and the positioning method further comprises:

comparing the first possible positions with the pair of previous correct positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions.

4. The positioning method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the comparison process is to compare a distance, a moving direction and/or a moving speed of the first possible positions with that of the pair of previous correct positions.

5. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch system further comprises a third image sensor for acquiring image windows looking across the touch surface and containing images of the two pointers, and the positioning method further comprises:

acquiring a third image window with the third image sensor;

identifying the numbers of pointer images in the first, second and third image windows;

mapping the third image window to the two-dimensional space when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are smaller than that in the rest image window;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, mapping positions of two image sensors acquiring fewer pointer image with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the image windows acquired by the same two image sensors to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four second internal bisectors of the quadrilateral;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the second internal bisectors thereby generating second possible positions; and

comparing the first possible positions with the second possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions.

6. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch system further comprises a third image sensor for acquiring image windows looking across the touch surface and containing images of the two pointers, and the positioning method further comprises:

acquiring a third image window with the third image sensor;

identifying the numbers of pointer images in the first, second and third image windows;

mapping the third image window to the two-dimensional space when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are larger than that in the rest image window;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of one of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor and connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring fewer pointer image with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four third internal bisectors of the quadrilateral;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of one of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the third internal bisectors thereby generating third possible positions; and

comparing the first possible positions with the third possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions.

7. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the touch system further comprises a third image sensor for acquiring image windows looking across the touch surface and containing images of the two pointers, and the positioning method further comprises:

acquiring a third image window with the third image sensor;

identifying the numbers of pointer images in the first, second and third image windows;

mapping the third image window to the two-dimensional space when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are larger than that in the rest image window;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, mapping positions of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image windows acquired by the same two image sensors to form a quadrilateral;

defining four corners of the quadrilateral as fourth possible positions; and

comparing the first possible positions with the fourth possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions.

8. The positioning method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

9. The positioning method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

10. The positioning method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

11. The positioning method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

12. A positioning method for a touch system, the touch system comprising a first image sensor, a second image sensor and a third image sensor for acquiring image windows looking across a touch surface and containing images of two pointers operating above the touch surface, the positioning method comprising the steps of:

respectively acquiring an image window with three image sensors;

identifying numbers of pointer images in the image windows;

generating a two-dimensional space according to the three image windows;

executing the following steps when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows is smaller then that in the rest image window;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, mapping positions of two image sensors acquiring fewer pointer image with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the image windows acquired by the same two image sensors to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four second internal bisectors of the quadrilateral; and

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the second internal bisectors thereby generating second possible positions; and

executing the following steps when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows is larger then that in the rest image window;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of one of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor and connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring fewer pointer image with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four third internal bisectors of the quadrilateral; and

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of one of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the third internal bisectors thereby generating third possible positions.

13. The positioning method as claimed in claim 12, wherein a pair of previous correct positions of the pointers with respect to the touch surface was determined in a previous sample time before the image sensors acquire the image windows, and the positioning method further comprises:

comparing the second possible positions with the pair of previous correct positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are smaller than that in the rest image window; and

comparing the third possible positions with the pair of previous correct positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are larger than that in the rest image window.

14. The positioning method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:

selecting two image sensors acquiring different numbers of pointer images;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, mapping positions of the two image sensors respectively with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer images in the image windows acquired by the same two image sensors to form a quadrilateral;

calculating four first internal bisectors of the quadrilateral;

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, a mapping position of one of the two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the first internal bisectors thereby generating first possible positions.

15. The positioning method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising:

comparing the second possible positions with the first possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are smaller than that in the rest image window; and

comparing the third possible positions with the first possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are larger than that in the rest image window.

16. The positioning method as claimed in claim 12, wherein when the numbers of pointer images in two of the image windows are larger than that in the rest image window, the positioning method further comprising:

connecting, on the two-dimensional space, mapping positions of two image sensors acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image windows acquired by the same two image sensors to form a quadrilateral;

defining four corners of the quadrilateral as fourth possible positions; and

comparing the third possible positions with the fourth possible positions to obtain a pair of current correct positions.

17. The positioning method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

18. The positioning method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

19. The positioning method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the predetermined point is a center point or a center of weight of the pointer image.

20. A touch system, comprising:

a touch surface, wherein a plurality of pointers are operated above the touch surface to accordingly control the touch system;

at least two image sensors configured to acquire image windows looking across the touch surface and containing images of the pointers operating above the touch surface; and

a processing unit generating a two-dimensional space according the image windows acquired by the image sensors, obtaining a quadrilateral and four internal bisectors of the quadrilateral by connecting mapping positions of the image sensors with mapping positions of two outermost edges of the pointer image in the image windows acquired by the image sensors on the two-dimensional space, and connecting a mapping position of the image sensor acquiring more pointer images with mapping positions of a predetermined point of the pointer images in the image window acquired by the same image sensor to intersect with the internal bisectors thereby generating possible positions.