Capture of Vibro-Acoustic Data Used to Determine Touch Types

• US 20150035759A1
• Filed: 08/02/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2013
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Qeexo Co. (TDK Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Qeexo Co. (TDK Corporation)
• Inventors: Harrison, Christopher, Schwarz, Julia, Xiao, Robert Bo
• Application Number:
  US13/958,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20150035759A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves

Abstract

An electronic device includes a touch-sensitive surface, for example a touch pad or touch screen. The user physically interacts with the touch-sensitive surface, producing touch events. The resulting interface actions taken depend at least in part on the touch type. The type of touch is determined in part based on vibro-acoustic data and touch data produced by the touch event.

Claims

1. A method of interaction between a user and an electronic device having a touch-sensitive surface, the method comprising:

receiving a touch event trigger that indicates an occurrence of a physical touch event on the touch-sensitive surface;

accessing touch data produced by the touch event;

accessing vibro-acoustic data for a vibro-acoustic signal produced by the physical touch event, for a time window that begins at a time that is prior to receipt of the touch event trigger; and

determining a touch type for the touch event based on the touch data and vibro-acoustic data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of accessing vibro-acoustic data for a time window comprises:

continuously capturing and maintaining a buffer of vibro-acoustic data associated with the touch-sensitive surface;

after receipt of the touch event trigger, determining the time window; and

accessing the buffered vibro-acoustic data for the determined time window.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of accessing vibro-acoustic data for a time window comprises:

predicting a possible touch event, prior to occurrence of a physical touch; and

upon such a prediction, beginning capture of vibro-acoustic data associated with the touch-sensitive surface.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of predicting a possible touch event comprises:

predicting a possible touch event, based on data from touch sensor associated with the touch-sensitive surface.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said touch data is indicative of a finger or instrument in proximity to the touch-sensitive surface.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein said touch data is indicative of a finger or instrument approaching the touch-sensitive surface.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a delay in receiving the touch event trigger is at least one millisecond after the occurrence of the physical touch event.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the time window begins at a time that is prior to a beginning of the physical touch event.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the time window ends at a time that is prior to receipt of the touch event trigger.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein a wait is used such that the time window ends at a time that is after receipt of the touch event trigger.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the vibro-acoustic data includes vibration data caused by the physical touch event.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the vibro-acoustic data includes acoustic data caused by the physical touch event.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a touch type comprises:

extracting features from the touch data and vibro-acoustic data; and

classifying the features to determine a touch type for the touch event.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a location, shape, orientation, and/or size of the touch event.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a major axis value, minor axis value, eccentricity, and/or ratio of major and minor axes of the touch event.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a pressure of the touch event.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a capacitance of the touch event.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a time domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data or on a derivative of the time domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data or on a derivative of a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on powers in different bands of a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data or of a derivative of a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data.

21. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a ratio of powers in different bands of a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data or of a derivative of a frequency domain representation of the vibro-acoustic data.

22. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on a statistical value of the vibro-acoustic data.

23. The method of claim 13 wherein the extracted features include at least one feature based on at least one of the following for the vibro-acoustic data:

skewness, dispersion, root mean square, zero crossing, power sum, range, average value, center of mass and standard deviation.

24. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of classifying the features comprises using a Support Vector Machine, Neural Network, Decision Tree, or Random Forest to classify the features.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

executing an action on the electronic device in response to the touch event and touch type, wherein the same touch event results in execution of a first action for a first touch type and results in execution of a second action for a second touch type.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the touch-sensitive surface is a touch screen.

27. A machine-readable tangible storage medium having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions, which when executed by an electronic device having a touch-sensitive surface, cause the electronic device to perform a method comprising the steps of:

receiving a touch event trigger that indicates an occurrence of a physical touch event on the touch-sensitive surface;

accessing touch data produced by the touch event;

accessing vibro-acoustic data for a time window, the vibro-acoustic data physically produced by the touch event, the time window beginning at a time that is prior to receipt of the touch event trigger; and

determining a touch type for the touch event based on the touch data and vibro-acoustic data.

28. An electronic device comprising:

a touch-sensitive surface;

means for receiving a touch event trigger that indicates an occurrence of a physical touch event on the touch-sensitive surface;

means for accessing touch data produced by the touch event;

means for accessing vibro-acoustic data for a time window, the vibro-acoustic data physically produced by the touch event, the time window beginning at a time that is prior to receipt of the touch event trigger; and

means for determining a touch type for the touch event based on the touch data and vibro-acoustic data.