TOUCH PANEL DEVICE AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20160179292A1
• Filed: 12/17/2015
• Published: 06/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujimoto, Norie
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0338 Fingerprint track pad, i.e. fingerprint sensor used as pointing device tracking the fingertip image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/13 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1359 Extracting features related to ridge properties; Determining the fingerprint type, e.g. whorl or loop
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/1376 Matching features related to ridge properties or fingerprint texture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00389 Programmable function keys, e.g. for one-touch operation H04N1/00387 takes precedence; for automation of transmitter jobs H04N1/32058
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00392 Other manual input means, e.g. digitisers or writing tablets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00408 Display of information to the user, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

A touch panel device includes a touch panel unit, a fingerprint image capturing unit, a size derivation unit, and a control unit. The touch panel unit includes a display section that displays information about an operating instruction for a user. The touch panel unit detects the condition of contact with a user'"'"'s finger to accept an input of the operating instruction. When the touch panel unit is pressed by the user'"'"'s finger, the fingerprint image capturing unit captures an image of a fingerprint of the user'"'"'s finger pressing the touch panel unit. The size derivation unit derives a size of the user'"'"'s finger having pressed the touch panel unit from the fingerprint image captured by the fingerprint image capturing unit. The control unit controls the operating instruction based on the size of the user'"'"'s finger derived by the size derivation unit.

Claims

1. A touch panel device comprising:

a touch panel unit that includes a display section displaying information about an operating instruction for a user and detects the condition of contact with a user'"'"'s finger to accept an input of the operating instruction;

a fingerprint image capturing unit that when the touch panel unit is pressed by the user'"'"'s finger, captures an image of a fingerprint of the user'"'"'s finger pressing the touch panel unit;

a size derivation unit that derives a size of the user'"'"'s finger having pressed the touch panel unit from the image of the fingerprint captured by the fingerprint image capturing unit; and

a control unit that controls the operating instruction based on the size of the user'"'"'s finger derived by the size derivation unit.

2. The touch panel device according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit controls the operating instruction by correcting a threshold used to identify the operation instruction that is input through the touch panel unit based on the size of the user'"'"'s finger derived by the size derivation unit.

3. The touch panel device according to claim 2, wherein

the control unit determines that the operating instruction is a tap if the distance in which the user'"'"'s finger moves from a point where the user'"'"'s finger makes contact with the touch panel unit does not exceed the threshold, while determining that the operating instruction is a swipe if the distance exceeds the threshold.

4. The touch panel device according to claim 1, comprising

a storage unit that stores images of a plurality of fingerprint patterns, wherein

the control unit controls the operating instruction by comparing the image of the fingerprint captured by the fingerprint image capturing unit with the images of the fingerprint patterns stored in the storage unit.

5. The touch panel device according to claim 4, wherein

the images of the fingerprint patterns stored in the storage unit include at least one of a whorl fingerprint image, a loop fingerprint image, and an arch fingerprint image.

8. An image processing apparatus comprising:

the touch panel device according to claim 1, and

an image processing unit that performs image processing in accordance with the operating instruction input through the touch panel device.

6. A touch panel device comprising:

a touch panel unit that includes a display section displaying information about an operating instruction for a user and detects the condition of contact with a user'"'"'s finger to accept an input of the operating instruction;

a fingerprint image capturing unit that when the touch panel unit is pressed by the user'"'"'s finger, captures an image of a fingerprint of the user'"'"'s finger pressing the touch panel unit;

a position derivation unit that derives a position on the user'"'"'s finger having pressed the touch panel unit from the image of the fingerprint captured by the fingerprint image capturing unit; and

a control unit that controls the operating instruction based on the position on the user'"'"'s finger derived by the position derivation unit.

7. The touch panel device according to claim 6, wherein

the control unit control the operating instruction by reducing a correction value to correct a displacement of the position on the user'"'"'s finger that makes contact with the touch panel unit as the position on the user'"'"'s finger derived by the position derivation unit is closer to a tip of the user'"'"'s finger.

9. An image processing apparatus comprising:

the touch panel device according to claim 6, and

an image processing unit that performs image processing in accordance with the operating instruction input through the touch panel device.