Unintentional Touch Rejection

• US 20120001861A1
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Townsend, Reed L., Kolmykov-Zotov, Alexander J., Dodge, Steven P., Scott, Bryan D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,294,686 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• 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 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• 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 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A method for rejecting an unintentional palm touch is disclosed. In at least some embodiments, a touch is detected by a touch-sensitive surface associated with a display. Characteristics of the touch may be used to generate a set of parameters related to the touch. In an embodiment, firmware is used to determine a reliability value for the touch. The reliability value and the location of the touch is provided to a software module. The software module uses the reliability value and an activity context to determine a confidence level of the touch. In an embodiment, the confidence level may include an evaluation of changes in the reliability value over time. If the confidence level for the touch is too low, it may be rejected.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a first touch on a touch-sensitive device of the computer, the first touch having a first width and a first length;

determining, by the computer, a first reliability value of the first touch based at least partly on the first width and the first length, the first reliability value indicating a first probability that the first touch is intentional;

receiving, by the computer, a second touch on the touch-sensitive device after receiving the first touch, the second touch having a second width and a second length;

determining, by the computer, a second reliability value of the second touch based at least partly on the second width and the second length, the second reliability value indicating a second probability that the second touch is intentional;

determining, by the computer, that the first touch and the second touch are each a portion of a third touch based at least partly on changes to the first reliability value and the second reliability value over time, the third touch having a third width greater than a combination of the first width and the second width and a third length greater than a combination of the first length and the second length; and

rejecting, by the computer, the third touch based at least partly on the third width and the third length.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining a confidence value of the first touch based at least partly on the first reliability value.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the confidence level of the first touch does not exceed a predetermined level; and

determining that the confidence level of the first touch does exceed a threshold level.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising providing visual feed back to a user of the computer at least partly in response to determining that the confidence level of the first touch does not exceed the predetermined level and that the confidence level of the first touch does exceed the threshold level.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the visual feedback includes moving a graphical user interface indicator to a location where the first touch is located.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the graphical user interface indicator is a cursor or a widget.

7. One or more computer-readable storage media including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform operations comprising:

detecting a touch by a touch-sensitive device of a computer;

receiving, by the computer, reliability data associated with the touch, the reliability data indicating a location of the touch on the touch-sensitive device;

determining, by the computer, a location context of the touch, the location context indicating a location of one or more windows on the touch-sensitive device and a use of each of the one or more windows;

determining a state of a software application of the computer;

determining a confidence level of the touch based at least partly on the location touch, the location context of the touch, and the state of the software application; and

communicating the touch to the software application when the confidence level of the touch meets a predetermined level.

8. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the state of the application includes an amount of time the software application has waited for an input, a type of input expected by the software application, historical patterns of input for the software application, or combinations thereof.

9. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 8, wherein the historical patterns of input for the software application are different than historical patterns of input for an additional application.

10. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the determining the confidence level of the touch includes determining whether the location of the touch is in a window associated with the software application, determining whether the location of the touch is an active area of the touch-sensitive device, determining whether a valid touch is being made in a different location on the touch-sensitive device, or combinations thereof.

11. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise determining an active application of the computer and the predetermined level depends at least partly on the location of the touch, the active application of the computer, or both.

12. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the location context further indicates a window displayed on the touch-sensitive device that is affected by the touch, a confidence level that is acceptable with respect to the window, or both.

13. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 12, wherein the confidence level that is acceptable with respect to the window is user configurable.

14. The one or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the location context further indicates that the software application ignores touches outside a particular window of the touch-sensitive device, that the software application accepts certain types of gestures in the particular window, that any touch in the particular window triggers an action with respect to the software application, or combinations thereof.

15. A system comprising:

a touch-sensitive device;

a processing unit;

memory coupled to the processing unit, the memory storing;

firmware configured to determine a number of reliability values of a touch on the touch-sensitive device;

a software module configured to;

determine a first confidence level of the touch based at least partly on a first reliability value of the touch;

determine a second confidence level of the touch based at least partly on a second reliability value of the touch, the second confidence level having a lower value than the first confidence level; and

delaying a determination regarding whether to reject the touch based on a decrease in the confidence level of the touch from the first confidence level to the second confidence level.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the first reliability value and the second reliability value indicate a respective probability that the touch is intended.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the respective probability that the touch is intended depends at least partly on an area of the touch, a correspondence between a height of the touch and a width of the touch, or both.

18. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein an amount of delay associated with the determination regarding whether to reject the touch depends at least partly on a particular confidence level of the touch, a location of the touch, a state of an application associated with the touch, or combinations thereof.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the state of the application associated with the touch includes an expectation that the application is expecting a touch.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the determination regarding whether to reject the touch is delayed when reliability values of the touch fluctuate over time or the touch moves outside an expected region of contact on the touch-sensitive device.