Touch Sensitive Surface with False Touch Protection for an Electronic Device

• US 20140267139A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Merrell, Thomas Y., Slaby, Jiri, Ady, Roger W.
• Application Number:
  US13/833,337
• Publication Number:
  US 20140267139A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04809 Textured surface identifying touch areas, e.g. overlay structure for a virtual keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means

Abstract

An electronic device (300) includes a housing (301) and a touch sensitive surface (303) disposed along the housing. The touch sensitive surface has a recessed surface feature (306) and a complementary non-concave surface (308).

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a touch sensitive surface disposed along the housing, the touch sensitive surface including a recessed surface feature and a non-recessed surface.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, the recessed surface feature having an oblong perimeter.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, the recessed surface feature having a circular perimeter.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a capacitive touchpad spanning the touch sensitive surface.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, the capacitive touchpad comprising:

a plurality of touchpad segments;

at least a first touchpad segment being larger than at least a second touchpad segment.

6. The electronic device of claim 4, further comprising:

a control circuit, operable with the capacitive touchpad, to apply a first signal having a first amplitude to at least a first touchpad segment and a second signal having a second amplitude to at least a second touchpad segment.

7. The electronic device of claim 4, further comprising:

a grille of non-conductive material disposed above at least a portion of the capacitive touchpad.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, the grille of non-conductive material comprising:

a compressible material.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, further comprising:

a control circuit, operable with the capacitive touchpad, to detect touch actuation from an object overcoming a force threshold created by the grille.

10. The electronic device of claim 7, the capacitive touchpad extending beyond a boundary of the grille in at least one surface dimension.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, further comprising:

a second grille of non-conductive material disposed above at least another portion of the capacitive touchpad.

12. The touch sensitive surface of claim 4, the capacitive touchpad disposed on an internal side of the housing, the touch sensitive surface disposed on an external side of the housing.

13. The touch sensitive surface of claim 4, further comprising:

an adhesive layer attaching the capacitive touchpad and the housing.

14. The touch sensitive surface of claim 1, the non-recessed surface being one of:

planar or convex.

15. The electronic device of claim 4, further comprising:

a control circuit, operable with the capacitive touchpad, to detect touch actuation along the touch sensitive surface.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, further comprising:

a haptic component, operable with the control circuit, the control circuit to actuate the haptic component upon detecting the touch actuation.

17. The electronic device of claim 1, the touch sensitive surface having a secondary recessed surface feature disposed along the recessed surface feature.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, further comprising:

a control circuit, operable with a capacitive touchpad, to detect touch actuation along the touch sensitive surface;

the control circuit to detect a predetermined gesture sequence when the touch actuation interacts with the secondary recessed surface feature.

19. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing substrate;

a capacitive touchpad attached to the housing substrate along a touch sensitive surface that includes at least one concave surface element and at least one non-concave surface element.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, the at least one non-concave surface element being one of:

planar or convex.