MULTI-DIMENSIONAL TOUCH INPUT VECTOR SYSTEM FOR SENSING OBJECTS ON A TOUCH PANEL

• US 20140168164A1
• Filed: 12/09/2013
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PQ Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: PQ Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Lu, Fei
• Application Number:
  US14/101,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20140168164A1
• 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 3/0308 comprising a plurality of distinctive and separately oriented light emitters or reflectors associated to the pointing device, e.g. remote cursor controller with distinct and separately oriented LEDs at the tip whose radiations are captured by a photo-detector associated to the screen
• 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

A touch panel system allows multiple simultaneous touch objects on a touch panel to be distinguished. The touch panel includes on its periphery a first plurality of light transmitters and a second plurality of light sensors, each positioned around at least a portion of a perimeter of the touch panel. A processor in communication with the at least one light sensor acquires light intensity data from the sensor(s), wherein any one or more touch objects placed within a touch detectable region of the panel interrupts at least a subset of light paths between transmitter and sensor. Based on the interrupted light paths, the processor generates a touch input vector that represents the placement of each touch object on the touch panel.

Claims

1. A touch system for detecting an object placed on a surface within a perimeter of a touch panel having an x-axis and a y-axis comprising:

a first plurality of light transmitters in optical communication with a second plurality of light sensors, each light sensor positioned around at least a portion of the perimeter of said touch panel, each light transmitter comprising a LED semiconductor die and a lens wherein said lens has a wider x-axis view angle than y-axis view angle.

2. The touch system as in claim 1, wherein the cross section of said lens is an ellipse.

3. The touch system as in claim 1, wherein at least one light transmitter is coated with a reflective material around at least a portion of the surface of said at least one light transmitter.

4. A touch system for detecting an object placed on a surface within a perimeter of a touch panel having four corners comprising:

a first plurality of light transmitters positioned around at least a portion of the perimeter of said touch panel; and

a second plurality of light sensors positioned around at least a portion of the perimeter of said touch panel, wherein at least some of the second plurality of light sensors have an L-shape or linear shape, wherein at least one touch object placed on the surface within the perimeter of the touch panel interrupts at least a subset of light paths between at least one of the light transmitters and one of the light sensors.

5. The touch system as in claim 4 further comprising at least one processor in communication with at least some of the second plurality of light sensors so as to obtain light intensity data therefrom, the processor configured to locate and distinguish one or more touch objects placed on the touch panel based on the interrupted light paths.

6. The touch system as in claim 4, wherein at least one light sensor is a CIS module.

7. The touch system as in claim 4, wherein four light transmitters among the first plurality of light transmitters are positioned at the four corners of said touch panel.

8. A touch system for detecting an id, position, size, and convex contour of at least one object placed on a surface within a perimeter of a touch panel comprising:

a first plurality of light transmitters positioned around at least a portion of the perimeter of said touch panel;

a second plurality of light sensors positioned around at least a portion of the perimeter of said touch panel;

at least one light sensor from the second plurality of light sensors providing light intensity data from a subset of light paths between at least one light transmitter in the first plurality of light sensors and said at least one light sensor, one or more of said light paths being interrupted by placement of at least one touch object onto the surface of the touch panel;

at least one internal processor in communication with said at least one light sensor so as to obtain light intensity data;

means for computing hot regions H=[h_i;

i≦

NH, where h_i is the i_th hot region and NH is the number of hot regions] from a subset of said light intensity data by calculating the shape and boundary of interrupted light paths;

means for computing expected object area S by overlaying said hot regions H and comparing it with a predetermined overlay region P;

means for deriving totally disconnected expected object area S′

from S;

means for computing spatial properties, including position, size and convex contour, of said totally disconnected expected object area S′

;

means for associating touch objects with a subset of said totally disconnected expected object area S′

; and

means for assigning to each said touch objects an ID and said spatial properties as a touch input vector representing the placement of each touch object on the touch panel.

9. The touch system as in claim 8, further comprises:

at least one external processor in communication with said at least one internal processor to accelerate the calculation of overlays.