COORDINATE DETECTING DEVICE

• US 20130002579A1
• Filed: 06/21/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: ALPS Electric Company Limited (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hatano, Naoyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,448,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/047 using sets of wires, e.g. crossed wires

Abstract

A coordinate detecting device includes a plurality of first and second electrodes, a detecting unit for scanning the first and second electrodes to detect sensor output values of the first and second electrodes, and an arithmetic processing unit for performing an arithmetic process on the basis of the detected sensor output values. When there are a plurality of peak regions in which the sensor output values of both the first and second electrodes are equal to or greater than a first threshold value, the detecting unit detects the sensor output values at intersection points between the first and second electrodes in the peak regions. The arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of a detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes in the peak regions and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the peak regions.

Claims

1. A coordinate detecting device comprising:

a plurality of first electrodes arranged in a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes arranged in a second direction different from the first direction;

a detecting unit configured to scan the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes, thereby detecting sensor output values of the first electrodes and sensor output values of the second electrodes; and

an arithmetic processing unit configured to perform an arithmetic process on the basis of the sensor output values detected by the detecting unit,

wherein, when there are a plurality of peak regions in which the sensor output values of both the first electrodes and the second electrodes are equal to or greater than a first threshold value, the detecting unit detects the sensor output values at intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak regions, and

the arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of a detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak regions and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the peak regions.

2. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 1,

wherein, when there are a plurality of peaks where the sensor output value is equal to or greater than the first threshold value in the sensor output values of the plurality of first electrodes and/or the sensor output values of the plurality of second electrodes, the arithmetic processing unit determines that there are a plurality of peak regions and sets, as the peak region, a region in which the sensor output values of both the first electrodes and the second electrodes are equal to or greater than the first threshold value.

3. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 1,

wherein the arithmetic processing unit calculates the sum of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each of the plurality of peak regions, selects a peak region with a large sum from the plurality of peak regions, and calculates the coordinates of the detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the selected peak region and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the selected peak region.

4. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 2,

wherein the arithmetic processing unit calculates the sum of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each of the plurality of peak regions, selects a peak region with a large sum from the plurality of peak regions, and calculates the coordinates of the detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the selected peak region and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the selected peak region.

5. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 3,

wherein the number of peak regions selected by the arithmetic processing unit is equal to the larger of the number of peaks in the sensor output values of the plurality of first electrodes and the number of peaks in the sensor output values of the plurality of second electrodes.

6. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 4,

wherein the number of peak regions selected by the arithmetic processing unit is equal to the larger of the number of peaks in the sensor output values of the plurality of first electrodes and the number of peaks in the sensor output values of the plurality of second electrodes.

7. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 3,

wherein, when the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each peak region are equal to or less than a second threshold value, the arithmetic processing unit determines the sensor output values to be invalid and calculates the sum in each peak region.

8. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 4,

wherein, when the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each peak region are equal to or less than a second threshold value, the arithmetic processing unit determines the sensor output values to be invalid and calculates the sum in each peak region.

9. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 5,

wherein, when the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each peak region are equal to or less than a second threshold value, the arithmetic processing unit determines the sensor output values to be invalid and calculates the sum in each peak region.

10. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 6,

wherein, when the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in each peak region are equal to or less than a second threshold value, the arithmetic processing unit determines the sensor output values to be invalid and calculates the sum in each peak region.

11. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 7,

wherein, when continuously calculating the coordinates of the detection target, the arithmetic processing unit sets the second threshold value to a relatively small value in an n-th coordinate calculating operation at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes closest to the coordinates specified by an (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation and electrodes adjacent to the first and second electrodes.

12. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 8,

wherein, when continuously calculating the coordinates of the detection target, the arithmetic processing unit sets the second threshold value to a relatively small value in an n-th coordinate calculating operation at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes closest to the coordinates specified by an (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation and electrodes adjacent to the first and second electrodes.

13. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 9,

wherein, when continuously calculating the coordinates of the detection target, the arithmetic processing unit sets the second threshold value to a relatively small value in an n-th coordinate calculating operation at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes closest to the coordinates specified by an (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation and electrodes adjacent to the first and second electrodes.

14. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 10,

wherein, when continuously calculating the coordinates of the detection target, the arithmetic processing unit sets the second threshold value to a relatively small value in an n-th coordinate calculating operation at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes closest to the coordinates specified by an (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation and electrodes adjacent to the first and second electrodes.

15. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 1,

wherein, when continuously calculating the coordinates of the detection target, the arithmetic processing unit compares the coordinates obtained by an (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation with the coordinates of a plurality of peak regions set by an n-th coordinate calculating operation and sets the coordinates of a peak region closest to the coordinates obtained by the (n−

1)-th coordinate calculating operation as the coordinates of the detection target in the n-th coordinate calculating operation.

16. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 1,

wherein, when there are three or more peaks where the sensor output value is equal to or greater than the first threshold value in the sensor output values of the plurality of first electrodes and/or the sensor output values of the plurality of second electrodes, the detecting unit does not perform the detection of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak region.

17. The coordinate detecting device according to claim 1,

wherein the arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of the detection target using a centroid calculation method on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak region and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the peak region.

18. A coordinate input device comprising:

a unit that controls the input of coordinates, the unit comprising a coordinate detecting device comprising;

a coordinate detecting device comprising;

a plurality of first electrodes arranged in a first direction and a plurality of second electrodes arranged in a second direction different from the first direction;

a detecting unit configured to scan the plurality of first electrodes and the plurality of second electrodes, thereby detecting sensor output values of the first electrodes and sensor output values of the second electrodes; and

an arithmetic processing unit configured to perform an arithmetic process on the basis of the sensor output values detected by the detecting unit,

wherein, when there are a plurality of peak regions in which the sensor output values of both the first electrodes and the second electrodes are equal to or greater than a first threshold value, the detecting unit detects the sensor output values at intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak regions, and

the arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of a detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first electrodes and the second electrodes in the peak regions and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the peak regions.