SELECTIVE INPUT SIGNAL REJECTION AND MODIFICATION

• US 20150153865A1
• Filed: 02/11/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: WESTERMAN, Wayne Carl, MULLENS, Christopher Tenzin
• Granted Patent: US 9,632,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Embodiments are related to user input devices that accept complex user input including a combination of touch and push (or pick) input. Embodiments of the invention provide for selective ignoring or rejection of input received from such devices in order to avoid interpreting unintentional user actions as commands. Furthermore, some input signals can be modified. The selective rejection or modification can be performed by the user interface device itself or by a computing device that includes or is attached to the user interface device. The selective rejection or modification may be performed by a module that processes input signals, performs the necessary rejections and modifications and sends revised input signals to higher level modules.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a user input device configured to sense user input data including at least one touch input and one pick input from a touch sensing panel;

a modification module configured to modify the user input data in response to an order in which the touch input and the pick input are sensed; and

a processor configured to process the modified user input data.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one touch input is detected independently of the at least one pick input.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein modifying the user input data comprises causing an effect by at least one of the sensed touch or pick inputs to be removed or reduced.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to filter the touch input data correlating to the at least one pick input when the pick input is sensed after the at least one touch input has been sensed.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the process is configured to perform an operation in response to only the sensed at least one touch input.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to report the at least one touch input to the processor for processing when the at least one touch input is sensed after the at least one pick input has been and continue to be sensed.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the process is configured to perform an operation in response to both the pick input and touch input.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to perform no modification to a pick input when the pick input is entered simultaneously with the at least one touch input.

9. A method of processing user interface inputs detected by a combination user interface device capable of detecting at least one touch input on a touch panel and at least one pick input causing physical deformation or displacement of the touch panel, the method comprising:

receiving first input data indicating a plurality of touch inputs;

determining a predefined multi-touch gesture based on the first input data;

receiving second input data indicating a pick input while the multi-touch gesture is in progress; and

ignoring the pick input.

10. A method of processing user interface inputs detected by a combination user interface device capable of detecting at least one touch input on a touch panel and at least one pick input causing physical deformation or displacement of the touch panel, the method comprising:

receiving first input data indicating a pick input;

performing a first operation in response to the pick input;

receiving second input data indicating at least one touch input while receiving the first input data;

performing a second operation in response to the at least one touch input.