Force Sensing Touchscreen

• US 20140198071A1
• Filed: 01/31/2014
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cherif Atia Algreatly
• Original Assignee: Cherif Atia Algreatly
• Inventors: Algreatly, Cherif Atia
• Application Number:
  US14/169,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20140198071A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04142 the force sensing means being located peripherally, e.g. disposed at the corners or at the side of a touch sensing plate
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A touchscreen that determines the point of touch and magnitude of a force applied to the touchscreen is disclosed. The force can be perpendicular, parallel, or sloped with respect to the touchscreen surface. The force can also be a plurality of forces simultaneously applied to the touchscreen surface where the centroid and resultant of the plurality of forces are determined. The touchscreen can take the form of various two-dimensional or three-dimensional shapes such as a circle, cube, sphere, cylinder, or the like.

Claims

1. A touchscreen to detect the position of touch and the magnitude of a force applied to a touching panel wherein the force can be parallel, perpendicular, or sloped to the touching panel, and the touchscreen is comprised of;

a touching panel comprised of multiple surfaces attached to each other in three-dimensions;

a plurality of sensors each of which is positioned at a corner of a surface of the multiple surfaces to detect the partial force applied to the corner;

a microprocessor that receives the data of the partial forces from the plurality of sensors and determines the position of touch and the magnitude of the force.

2. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein the touching panel has two faces and side edges and the force is applied to one of the two faces.

3. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein each surface of the multiple surfaces is a flat surface and the multiple surfaces are attached to each other to form a three-dimensional shape.

4. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein one or more surfaces of the multiple surfaces are curved surfaces and the multiple surfaces are attached to each other to form a three-dimensional shape.

5. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein the plurality of sensors are force sensors.

6. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein each sensor of the plurality of sensors detects the movement of a corresponding surface of the multiple surfaces due to the force.

7. The touchscreen of claim 1 wherein the force is multiple forces simultaneously applying to the touching panel, and the positions of touch and the magnitudes of the multiple forces are determined.

8. The touchscreen of claim 1 further the plurality of sensors are positioned at the corners of a wireframe attached to the touching panel.

9. A touchscreen to detect the centroid and resultant of multiple forces simultaneously applying to a touching panel at different positions wherein each force of the multiple forces can be parallel, perpendicular, or sloped to the touching panel, and the touchscreen is comprised of

a touching panel comprised of multiple surfaces attached to each other in three-dimensions;

a plurality of sensors each of which is positioned at a corner of a surface of the multiple surfaces to detect the partial force applied to the corner;

a microprocessor that receives the data of the partial forces from the plurality of sensors and determines the centroid and resultant of the multiple forces.

10. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein the centroid is represented by a location on the touching panel, and the resultant is represented by a magnitude along a three-dimensional direction.

11. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein the touching panel has two faces and side edges and the multiple forces are applied to one of the two faces.

12. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein each surface of the multiple surfaces is a flat surface and the multiple surfaces are attached to each other to form a three-dimensional shape, and the multiple forces are applied to one or more of the multiple surfaces.

13. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein one or more surfaces of the multiple surfaces are curved surfaces and the multiple surfaces are attached to each other to form a three-dimensional shape, and the multiple forces are applied to one or more of the multiple surfaces.

14. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein the plurality of sensors are force sensors.

15. The touchscreen of claim 9 wherein each sensor of the plurality of sensors detects the movement of a corresponding surface of the multiple surfaces due to the multiple forces.

16. A method for determining the position of touch and magnitude of a force applied to a plurality of surfaces attached to each other at the edges in three-dimensions wherein the method comprising;

detecting the partial force at each corner of each surface of the plurality of surfaces due to the force; and

analyzing the partial forces at all corners of all surfaces of the plurality of surfaces to determine the position of touch and magnitude of the force.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the force is multiple forces, and the position of touch is multiple positions of touch.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the force is multiple forces, the position of touch is a centroid, and the magnitude of the force is a resultant of the multiple forces.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the detecting of the partial forces is achieved by force sensors.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the detecting of the partial forces is achieved by tracking the movement of the plurality of surfaces due to the force.