CAPACITIVE TOUCH DEVICE AND METHOD IDENTIFYING TOUCH OBJECT ON THE SAME

• US 20160054831A1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Published: 02/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Elan Microelectronics Corporation
• Inventors: TSAI, YU-JEN, YEH, I-HAU, YANG, HSUEH-WEI, LI, SHENG-FENG
• Application Number:
  US14/816,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20160054831A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04164 Connections between sensors and controllers, e.g. routing lines between electrodes and connection pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

A capacitive touch device and a method identifying touch object on the touch device read sensing information of multiple traces of a touch panel corresponding to a touch object, in which the sensing information includes a sensing cluster corresponding to a portion on the touch panel touched by the touch object, identify a hover cluster of the sensing information corresponding to a portion adjacent to and surrounding the sensing cluster, determine if the hover cluster meets a first characteristic, and determine that the touch object is a specific touch object when the hover cluster meets the first characteristic. Given the foregoing device and method, a palm rejection operation can be more accurately performed and is also applicable to object detection at corners of the touch panel.

Claims

1. A method identifying touch object on a capacitive touch device, comprising steps of:

reading sensing information of multiple traces of a touch panel of a capacitive touch device corresponding to a touch object, wherein the sensing information includes a sensing cluster corresponding to a portion on the touch panel touched by the touch object;

identifying a hover cluster of the sensing information, wherein the hover cluster corresponds to a portion on the touch panel adjacent to but not in contact with the touch object and surrounds the sensing cluster;

determining if the hover cluster meets a first characteristic; and

determining that the touch object is a specific touch object when the hover cluster meets the first characteristic.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensing information is acquired through a mutual-capacitance scanning approach.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensing cluster of the sensing information is acquired through a mutual-capacitance scanning approach, and the hover cluster of the sensing information is acquired through a self-capacitance scanning approach.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the traces of the touch panel include multiple X-axis traces and multiple Y-axis traces, and the hover cluster has an inner boundary adjacent to the sensing cluster and an outer boundary at an outer perimeter of the hover cluster;

and

the step of determining if the hover cluster meets the first characteristic further has steps of;

calculating a ratio of a difference between a sensing capacitance value on the inner boundary and a sensing capacitance value on the outer boundary to a distance between the inner boundary and the outer boundary; and

determining that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the ratio is greater than a first configuration value.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein

a sensor node is constituted at an intersection of each X-axis trace and a corresponding Y-axis trace;

and

the step of determining if the hover cluster meets the first characteristic has steps of;

calculating a ratio of a difference between a sensing capacitance value at one of the sensor nodes on the inner boundary and a sensing capacitance value at one of the sensor nodes on the outer boundary to a distance between the inner boundary and the outer boundary; and

determining that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the ratio is greater than a first configuration value.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the hover cluster meets the first characteristic further has steps of:

acquiring a distance of a portion of the touch panel covered by the hover cluster in a first direction; and

determining that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the distance is less than a second configuration value.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein

the traces of the touch panel include multiple X-axis traces and multiple Y-axis traces, and a sensor node is constituted at an intersection of each X-axis trace and a corresponding Y-axis trace;

and

the distance is obtained according to a count of the sensor nodes on one of the X-axis traces with sensing capacitance values greater than a second sensing capacitance threshold and less than a first sensing capacitance threshold or a count of the sensor nodes on one of the Y-axis traces with sensing capacitance values greater than a second sensing capacitance threshold and less than a first sensing capacitance threshold.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the step of determining if the hover cluster meets the first characteristic further has steps of:

acquiring a maximum distance of a portion of the touch panel covered by the hover cluster in a first direction; and

determining that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the maximum distance is less than the second configuration value.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the second configuration value ranges from 0.5 cm to 1 cm.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising steps of:

determining if a range of the touch object is greater than a configured size; and

determining that the touch object is a nonspecific touch object if the range of the touch object is greater than the configured size.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the traces of the touch panel include multiple X-axis traces and multiple Y-axis traces, and a sensor node is constituted at an intersection of each X-axis trace and a corresponding Y-axis trace;

and

the method further comprises a step of determining if a gap exists between a perimeter of the touch panel and the sensing cluster.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the gap exists when there is at least one of the sensor nodes or at least one of the traces having no sensing capacitance value or having sensing capacitance value lower than a critical value between the sensing cluster and the perimeter of the touch panel.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the perimeter is one of edges of the touch panel most adjacent to the sensing cluster.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the traces of the touch panel include multiple X-axis traces and multiple Y-axis traces, and a sensor node is constituted at an intersection of each X-axis trace and a corresponding Y-axis trace;

and

the method further comprises a step of determining if a gap exists between a corner of the touch panel and the sensing cluster.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the gap exists when there is at least one of the sensor nodes or at least one of the traces having no sensing capacitance value or having sensing capacitance value lower than a critical value between the sensing cluster and the corner of the touch panel.

16. A capacitive touch device, comprising:

a touch panel having multiple traces; and

a controller connected to the traces of the touch panel, scanning each trace to determine sensing information generated by a touch object touching the touch panel, wherein the sensing information includes a sensing cluster corresponding to a portion on the touch panel touched by the touch object and a hover cluster corresponding to a portion on the touch panel adjacent to but not in contact with the touch object and surrounding the sensing cluster, and the controller identifies the touch object as a specific touch object when determining that the hover cluster meets a first characteristic.

17. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 16, wherein

the traces of the touch panel include multiple X-axis traces and multiple Y-axis traces, and a sensor node is constituted at an intersection of each X-axis trace and a corresponding Y-axis trace;

and

the controller configures a first sensing capacitance threshold to determine an outer boundary of the hover cluster and configures a second sensing capacitance threshold to determine an inner boundary of the hover cluster.

18. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 17, wherein the controller calculates a ratio of a difference between a sensing capacitance value on the inner boundary and a sensing capacitance value on the outer boundary to a distance between the inner boundary and the outer boundary, and determines that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the ratio is greater than a first configuration value.

19. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 17, wherein the controller acquires a distance of a portion of the touch panel covered by the hover cluster in a first direction, and determines that the hover cluster meets the first characteristic if the distance is less than a second configuration value.

20. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 19, wherein the distance is obtained according to one of a count of the sensor nodes on one of the X-axis traces or on the Y-axis traces or a count of the X-axis traces and the Y-axis traces with sensing capacitance values greater than a second sensing capacitance threshold and less than a first sensing capacitance threshold.

21. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 16, wherein when determining that the touch object is not a specific touch object, the controller performs a first operation command.

22. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 21, wherein the first operation command is a palm rejection operation.

23. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 16, wherein when determining that the touch object is a specific touch object, the controller performs a second operation command.

24. The capacitive touch device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the second operation command is a click or a pick gesture.