ADAPATIVE SENSING COMPONENT RESOLUTION BASED ON TOUCH LOCATION AUTHENTICATION

• US 20140354556A1
• Filed: 06/27/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Alameh, Rachid M., Love, Robert T., Slaby, Jiri
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,614 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/13 Sensors therefor

Abstract

A display component (108) displays multiple icons that a user can touch. A sensing component (104) supports multiple resolution modes, including at least a high resolution mode and a low resolution mode. In one embodiment, in response to detecting an object touching one of the multiple icons while in the low resolution mode, at least a portion of the sensing component over the touched icon changes to operating in a high resolution mode. While in the high resolution mode, the user'"'"'s fingerprint is sensed, and then the sensing component is returned to the low resolution mode. In another embodiment, icons are displayed in different regions of a display, and those different regions are associated with different sensing component resolutions. When an icon is touched, the touch is detected by the sensing component using the sensing component resolution associated with the region that includes the icon.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying multiple icons on a display of a device;

activating a sensing component of the device in a low resolution mode to detect touches;

detecting an object touching one of the multiple icons while the sensing component is in the low resolution mode; and

activating at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode in response to detecting the object touching the one of the multiple icons.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, the activating at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode comprising activating substantially all of the sensing component in the higher resolution mode.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, the activating at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode comprising activating a portion of the sensing component that is over the one icon or is within a threshold distance of being over the one icon.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, the sensing component comprising a sensing grid.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, the activating at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode comprising activating drive lines and sense lines of the sensing grid that pass over the one icon or that are within a threshold distance of passing over the one icon.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, the higher resolution mode being one of multiple higher resolution modes each having a higher resolution than the low resolution mode, the method further comprising identifying as the higher resolution mode one of the multiple higher resolution modes that is indicated in a security setting of the one icon as being associated with the one icon.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

sensing a fingerprint in at least the area while the area of the sensing component is in the higher resolution mode;

authenticating the fingerprint; and

returning the sensing component to the low resolution mode in response to successfully authenticating the fingerprint.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

returning the sensing component to the low resolution mode;

detecting an object touching an additional one of the multiple icons while the sensing component is in the low resolution mode; and

keeping the sensing component in the low resolution mode while the object is touching the additional one of the multiple icons.

9. A device comprising:

a display control module configured to display multiple icons on a display;

a sensing component operable in multiple resolution modes including a low resolution mode and a higher resolution mode; and

a sensing component control module configured to;

activate the sensing component in the low resolution mode to detect touches;

detect an object touching one of the multiple icons while the sensing component is in the low resolution mode; and

activate at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in the higher resolution mode in response to the object touching the one of the multiple icons.

10. The device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a driver component and a multiplexer component configured to activate different parts of the sensing component in the higher resolution mode at different times.

11. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein to activate at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode is to activate substantially all of the sensing component in the higher resolution mode.

12. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein to activate at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode is to activate a portion of the sensing component that is over the one icon or is within a threshold distance of being over the one icon.

13. The device as recited in claim 9, wherein the sensing component comprises a sensing grid, and wherein to activate at least an area of the sensing component that corresponds to the one icon in a higher resolution mode is to activate drive lines and sense lines of the sensing grid that pass over the one icon or that are within a threshold distance of passing over the one icon.

14. The device as recited in claim 9, the higher resolution mode being one of multiple resolution modes each having a higher resolution than the low resolution mode, the method further comprising identifying as the higher resolution mode one of the multiple resolution modes that is indicated in a security setting of the one icon as being associated with the one icon.

15. The device as recited in claim 9, the sensing component control module being further configured to:

sense a fingerprint in at least the area while the area is in the higher resolution mode;

authenticate the fingerprint; and

return the sensing component to the low resolution mode in response to authenticating the fingerprint.

16. A method comprising:

displaying different ones of multiple icons in multiple different regions of a display;

associating each of the multiple different regions with one of multiple sensing component resolutions; and

for each of the multiple different regions, activating at least part of the sensing component corresponding to the region with the sensing component resolution associated with the region.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, the multiple different regions comprising a first region associated with a low resolution mode, a second region associated with a medium resolution mode, and a third region associated with a high resolution mode.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising assigning each one of the multiple icons to one of the multiple different regions based on an authentication level used by an application represented by the icon.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a user indication of which of the multiple different regions one of the multiple icons is to be displayed in; and

assigning the one icon to the user indicated region.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, further comprising assigning the one icon to the user indicated region only if an authentication level used by an application represented by the one icon is satisfied by the sensing component resolution associated with the user indicated region.