OPTICAL TOUCH SCREEN

• US 20120299879A1
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sung-Han Kim
• Original Assignee: Sung-Han Kim
• Inventors: KIM, Sung-Han
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/175
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133615 Edge-illuminating devices, i.e. illuminating from the side
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• 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 relates to an optical touch screen which can recognize touch coordinates when the screen is touched by a finger, a touch pen, or the like. The optical touch screen comprises units for generating infrared light sources. A control unit calculates coordinates of an object being touched on the touch screen based on data detected by the infrared cameras.

Claims

1. An optical touch screen comprising:

a main body configured to enclose edges of a touch area of a screen;

fine coordinate infrared light source generators configured to be arranged on each of two horizontal sides and two longitudinal sides of the main body and facing toward the touch area so as to generate a plurality of infrared light sources forming fine coordinates at a predefined spacing and to provide references for coordinates in a horizontal axis and a vertical axis of the touch area;

two or more infrared cameras configured to be installed in the main body to detect the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates generated by the fine coordinate infrared light source generators; and

a control unit configured to calculate coordinates of an object being touched in the touch area on the basis of detection data obtained by the infrared cameras.

2. The optical touch screen of claim 1, wherein each of the fine coordinate infrared light source generators comprises at least one infrared light emitting unit and a fine-coordinate-light source distributor configured to distribute light emitted from the infrared light emitting unit to the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates at a predefined spacing.

3. The optical touch screen of claim 2, wherein the fine-coordinate-light source distributor comprises a transparent rod having the infrared light emitting unit on at least one end and having fine grooves formed at a predefined spacing on one side along a length direction, and a diffusion unit configured to enable the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates from the fine grooves to emit evenly in all directions.

4. The optical touch screen of claim 2, wherein the fine-coordinate-light source distributor comprises a transparent rod having the infrared light emitting unit on one end, having fine grooves formed at a predefined spacing on one side along a length direction, and allowing light diffuse-reflected by the fine grooves to generate the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates at a predefined spacing on the other side.

5. The optical touch screen of claim 4, wherein the side of the transparent rod on which the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates are generated has a curved surface to function as a lens.

6. The optical touch screen of claim 5, wherein the side of the transparent rod on which the fine grooves are formed has a curved surface so that the light diffuse-reflected by the fine grooves is focused inside the transparent rod.

7. The optical touch screen of claim 6, wherein the transparent rod further comprises a reflection member on the side where the fine grooves are formed.

8. The optical touch screen of claim 2, wherein the fine-coordinate-light source distributor comprises a base film having a low refractive index, optical paths formed of transparent resin having a high refractive index and disposed at a predefined spacing on the base film, a coating film made of resin having a low refractive index to cover all the optical paths on the base film, and a diffusion unit configured to enable the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates from the optical paths to emit evenly in all directions.

9. The optical touch screen of claim 1, wherein there are provided three infrared cameras which are placed in each of three corners of the main body such that centers of each of the infrared cameras are placed at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the horizontal and vertical sides of the main body.

10. The optical touch screen of claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises

a memory configured to store a lookup table having position numbers as index values, which are assigned to all infrared light sources forming fine coordinates, and angles of positions of the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates as table values, which are measured by the three infrared cameras, and store address maps that are generated by matching identification numbers assigned to addresses of pixels on image sensors of each of the infrared cameras with the position numbers wherein the pixels are exposed to light by the infrared light sources forming fine coordinates and

a calculating unit configured to periodically check the pixels on the address maps that correspond to the identification numbers for light exposure data, and if there are pixels that stop being exposed to light, read the position numbers of corresponding infrared light sources forming fine coordinates from the address maps by use of the identification numbers assigned to the addresses of the pixels, obtain the angle values of the corresponding infrared light sources forming fine coordinates from the lookup table and calculate the coordinates of the touching object based on the obtained angle values.

11. The optical touch screen of claim 10, wherein when multi-touch occurs, the calculating unit calculates the coordinates of the touching object based on angle values obtained by two of the three infrared cameras, and distinguishes actual point coordinates and ghost point coordinates of the touching object on the basis of the calculated coordinates of the touching object and angle values obtained by the remaining infrared camera.