STORING BASELINE INFORMATION IN EEPROM

• US 20160195964A1
• Filed: 03/15/2016
• Published: 07/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: LAND, Brian Richards, WESTERMAN, Wayne Carl, HOTELLING, Steve Porter
• Granted Patent: US 10,761,658 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 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- 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 without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• 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

Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.

Claims

1. A method of operating an event sensor panel, comprising:

triggering a start of event sensing functionality at the event sensor panel;

determining one or more objects touching or hovering over the event sensor panel when the start of event sensing functionality is triggered; and

initiating an operation based on the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an image being displayed by a touch screen comprising the event sensor panel when the one or more touching or hovering objects are determined; and

initiating the operation based on the determined image.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining the image being displayed at a location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects; and

initiating the operation based on the image being displayed at the location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating the operation based on a number of determined touching or hovering objects.

5. The method of claim 1, the operation comprising an initiation of one or more diagnostics modes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising triggering the start of event sensing functionality when the event sensor panel exits a sleep mode.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values as current no-event baseline sensor output values for sensors in the event sensor panel;

performing a scan of the event sensor panel to obtain new sensor output values and determine the one or more objects touching or hovering over the event sensor panel, and

replacing the current no-event baseline sensor output values with the new sensor output values upon determining that the one or more objects are no longer touching or hovering over the event sensor panel.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising adjusting the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values in accordance with an ambient temperature.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by:

comparing the new sensor output values to the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values; and

determining whether the new sensor output values are within a predetermined range of the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by determining whether the new sensor output values are below a predetermined threshold.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by determining whether the new sensor output values are within a predetermined range of each other.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program code for operating an event sensor panel, the program code for causing performance of a method comprising:

triggering a start of event sensing functionality at the event sensor panel;

determining one or more objects touching or hovering over the event sensor panel when the start of event sensing functionality is triggered; and

initiating an operation based on the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the method further comprising:

determining an image being displayed by a touch screen comprising the event sensor panel when the one or more touching or hovering objects are determined; and

initiating the operation based on the determined image.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

determining the image being displayed at a location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects; and

initiating the operation based on the image being displayed at the location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the method further comprising initiating the operation based on a number of determined touching or hovering objects.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the operation comprising an initiation of one or more diagnostics modes.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the method further comprising triggering the start of event sensing functionality when the event sensor panel exits a sleep mode.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the method further comprising:

utilizing pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values as current no-event baseline sensor output values for sensors in the event sensor panel;

performing a scan of the event sensor panel to obtain new sensor output values and determine the one or more objects touching or hovering over the event sensor panel, and

replacing the current no-event baseline sensor output values with the new sensor output values upon determining that the one or more objects are no longer touching or hovering over the event sensor panel.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising adjusting the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values in accordance with an ambient temperature.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by:

comparing the new sensor output values to the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values; and

determining whether the new sensor output values are within a predetermined range of the pre-stored no-event baseline sensor output values.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by determining whether the new sensor output values are below a predetermined threshold.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising determining whether the one or more objects are touching or hovering over the event sensor panel by determining whether the new sensor output values are within a predetermined range of each other.

23. An event sensing system, comprising:

an event sensor panel; and

a processor operatively coupled to the event sensor panel and capable of

triggering a start of event sensing functionality at the event sensor panel,

determining one or more objects touching or hovering over the event sensor panel when the start of event sensing functionality is triggered, and

initiating an operation based on the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

24. The event sensing system of claim 23, the processor further capable of:

determining an image being displayed by a touch screen comprising the event sensor panel at a location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects when the one or more touching or hovering objects are determined; and

initiating the operation based on the image being displayed at the location of the determined one or more touching or hovering objects.

25. The event sensing system of claim 23, the processor further capable of initiating the operation based on a number of determined touching or hovering objects.