METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SENSING TOUCH INPUTS

• US 20160085333A1
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Published: 03/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qeexo Co. (TDK Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Qeexo Co. (TDK Corporation)
• Inventors: Christopher, Harrison
• Granted Patent: US 11,175,698 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1633 Constructional details or arrangements of portable computers not specific to the type of enclosures covered by groups G06F1/1615 - G06F1/1626
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1636 Sensing arrangement for detection of a tap gesture on the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser

Abstract

A method for sensing touch inputs to a digital equipment is provided, comprising the steps of sensing a sound/vibration signal generated by a touch, digitally processing the sensed sound/vibration signal, and determining the type of touch means that has generated the touch and the intensity of the touch based on the properties of the processed sound/vibration signal, wherein the properties include at least one of the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in time domain: maximum amplitude, average amplitude, average frequency, mean, standard deviation, standard deviation normalized by overall amplitude, variance, skewness, kurtosis, sum, absolute sum, root mean square (RMS), crest factor, dispersion, entropy, power sum, center of mass, coefficients of variation, cross correlation, zero-crossings, seasonality, DC bias, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of the sound/vibration signal; and the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in frequency domain: spectral centroid, spectral density, spherical harmonics, total average spectral energy, band energy ratios for every octave, log spectral band ratios, linear prediction-based cepstral coefficients (LPCCs), perceptual linear prediction (PLP) cepstral coefficients, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, frequency topology, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of a frequency domain representation of the sound/vibration signal. There is also provided a device for sensing touch inputs.

Claims

1. A method for sensing touch inputs to a digital equipment, comprising the steps of:

sensing a sound/vibration signal generated by a touch;

digitally processing the sensed sound/vibration signal; and

determining the type of touch means that has generated the touch and the intensity of the touch based on the properties of the processed sound/vibration signal,

wherein the properties include at least one of the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in time domain;

maximum amplitude, average amplitude, average frequency, mean, standard deviation, standard deviation normalized by overall amplitude, variance, skewness, kurtosis, sum, absolute sum, root mean square (RMS), crest factor, dispersion, entropy, power sum, center of mass, coefficients of variation, cross correlation, zero-crossings, seasonality, DC bias, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of the sound/vibration signal; and

the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in frequency domain;

spectral centroid, spectral density, spherical harmonics, total average spectral energy, band energy ratios for every octave, log spectral band ratios, linear prediction-based cepstral coefficients (LPCCs), perceptual linear prediction (PLP) cepstral coefficients, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, frequency topology, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of a frequency domain representation of the sound/vibration signal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating an event based on the determined type of the touch means and the determined touch intensity.

3. A touch input sensing device, comprising:

a signal sensing unit for sensing a sound/vibration signal generated by a touch;

a signal processing unit for digitally processing the sensed sound/vibration signal; and

a signal determination unit for determining the type of touch means that has generated the touch and the intensity of the touch based on the properties of the processed sound/vibration signal,

wherein the properties include at least one of the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in time domain;

maximum amplitude, average amplitude, average frequency, mean, standard deviation, standard deviation normalized by overall amplitude, variance, skewness, kurtosis, sum, absolute sum, root mean square (RMS), crest factor, dispersion, entropy, power sum, center of mass, coefficients of variation, cross correlation, zero-crossings, seasonality, DC bias, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of the sound/vibration signal; and

the following properties of the sound/vibration signal in frequency domain;

spectral centroid, spectral density, spherical harmonics, total average spectral energy, band energy ratios for every octave, log spectral band ratios, linear prediction-based cepstral coefficients (LPCCs), perceptual linear prediction (PLP) cepstral coefficients, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, frequency topology, or the above properties computed for the first, second, third or higher order of derivatives of a frequency domain representation of the sound/vibration signal.

4. The device of claim 3, further comprising an event generation unit for generating an event based on the determined type of the touch means and the determined touch intensity.