MULTI-TOUCH INPUT DISCRIMINATION
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Abstract
Techniques for identifying and discriminating between different types of contacts to a multi-touch touch-screen device are described. Illustrative contact types include fingertips, thumbs, palms and cheeks. By way of example, thumb contacts may be distinguished from fingertip contacts using a patch eccentricity parameter. In addition, by non-linearly deemphasizing pixels in a touch-surface image, a reliable means of distinguishing between large objects (e.g., palms) from smaller objects (e.g., fingertips, thumbs and a stylus) is described.
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Citations
63 Claims
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1-23. -23. (canceled)
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24. A method to discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for one or more of the plurality of patches based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining a minor axis radius value of one or more of the plurality of patches having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values; identifying one of the plurality of patches as being associated with a large object if the minor axis radius value of the one or more of the plurality of patches is above a first specified threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a patch; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the patch based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining a minor axis radius value for the patch having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values; identifying the patch as being associated with a large object if the minor axis radius value of the patch is above a first specified threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43)
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40. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a patch; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the patch based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining a minor axis radius value for the patch having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values; identifying the patch as being associated with a palm if the minor axis value of the patch is less than a first specified threshold and greater than a second specified threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45)
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41. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a patch; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the patch based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining a minor axis radius value for the patch having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values; identifying a patch as being associated with a finger if the minor axis value of the patch is less than a first specified threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47)
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48. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the patch based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining that at least five of the identified patches having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values are associated with finger contacts to a touch-surface; identifying the at least five identified patches as being associated with a finger-clasp operation; and using the identified finger-clasp operation to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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50. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the patch based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining that at least two of the identified patches having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values have major axis radius values larger than approximately 15 millimeters; identifying the at least two identified patches as being associated with a finger-clasp operation; and using the identified finger-clasp operation to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (51)
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52. A method to identify an input source to a touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify one or more patches, each patch having a plurality of pixels, each pixel having a value; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for the one or more patches based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining a signal density value for at least one of the one or more patches; identifying the at least one patch having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values as being associated with an object contacting a touch-surface of a touch-surface device if the at least one patch has a signal density value greater than a specified value; identifying the at least one patch as being associated with an object hovering above the touch-surface if the at least one patch has a signal density value less than the specified value; and performing a control operation on the touch-surface device in response to the acts of identifying. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A method to identify an input source to a multi-touch touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; compensating the proximity image for background noise; filtering the proximity image to reduce spurious peaks; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches; reducing or down-scaling peripheral patch pixel values for one or more of the patches based on the compensated proximity image and the filtered proximity image; determining that at least two of the identified patches having reduced or down-scaled peripheral patch pixel values have major axis radius values larger than a threshold; identifying the at least two identified patches as being associated with a finger-clasp operation; and using the identified finger-clasp operation to control an operation of a multi-touch touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (63)
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Specification