FINGER TRACKING IN WET ENVIRONMENT

• US 20180307375A1
• Filed: 08/25/2017
• Published: 10/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: SHAH, Apexit, BENBASAT, Ari Y.
• Granted Patent: US 10,386,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 2218/08 Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/14 by matching peak patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/16 by matching signal segments
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113

Abstract

Touch input processing for touch-sensitive devices can be improved by filtering unintended contact detected on a touch-sensitive surface. In wet environments in particular, water on the touch-sensitive surface can be erroneously detected as touch input and degrade touch performance. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches prior to computationally-intensive touch processing. Filtering out unintended touches classified as non-touch patches can reduce processing requirements and save power. Additionally, classifying input patches can improve touch performance in wet environments. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches based on characteristics of edge touch nodes. In some examples, input patches can be classified as touch patches or non-touch patches based on a state-based signal threshold.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a touch-sensitive surface; and

one or more processors coupled to the touch-sensitive surface programmed to;

acquire a touch image including measurements from a plurality of touch nodes of a touch-sensitive surface;

identify one or more input patches based on the touch image, wherein the one or more input patches include touch nodes measurements meeting a first signal threshold; and

for a respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

estimate a number of respective edges of the touch-sensitive surface included in the respective input patch that meet one or more edge criteria, wherein the one or more edge criteria comprise a threshold number of touch node measurements from touch nodes within a threshold distance of a respective edge of the touch-sensitive surface meeting a second signal threshold, the second signal threshold greater than the first signal threshold;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges meeting a first threshold and failing to meet a second threshold;

calculate a confidence value of the respective input patch;

in accordance with the confidence value meeting a confidence threshold, forgo further processing the respective input patch; and

in accordance with the confidence value failing to meet the confidence threshold, further process the respective input patch.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the threshold distance includes only touch nodes around a perimeter of the touch-sensitive surface.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the threshold number of touch nodes measurements is one touch node measurement for the respective edge.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the one or more edge criteria further comprise the threshold number of touch node measurements are from consecutive touch nodes.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, the one or more processors further programmed to:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges failing to meet the first threshold, further process the respective input patch.

6. The electric device of claim 1, the one or more processors further programmed to:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges meeting the first threshold and meeting the second threshold, forgo further processing the respective input patch.

7. The electric device of claim 1, wherein the confidence value is calculated based on at least one of:

a signal density of the respective input patch or an occupancy of the respective input patch.

8. The electric device of claim 1, wherein the confidence value is calculated based on a history of confidence values calculated from previous touch images.

9. A method comprising:

acquiring a touch image including measurements from a plurality of touch nodes of a touch-sensitive surface;

identifying one or more input patches based on the touch image, wherein the one or more input patches include touch nodes measurements meeting a first signal threshold; and

for a respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

estimating a number of respective edges of the touch-sensitive surface included in the respective input patch that meet one or more edge criteria, wherein the one or more edge criteria comprise a threshold number of touch node measurements from touch nodes within a threshold distance of a respective edge of the touch-sensitive surface meeting a second signal threshold, the second signal threshold greater than the first signal threshold;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges meeting a first threshold and failing to meet a second threshold, calculating a confidence value of the respective input patch;

in accordance with the confidence value meeting a confidence threshold, forgo processing the respective input patch; and

in accordance with the confidence value failing to meet the confidence threshold, processing the respective input patch.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the threshold distance includes only touch nodes around a perimeter of the touch-sensitive surface.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the threshold number of touch nodes measurements is one touch node measurement for the respective edge.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more edge criteria further comprise the threshold number of touch node measurements are from consecutive touch nodes.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges failing to meet the first threshold, further process the respective input patch.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the estimated number of respective edges meeting the first threshold and meeting the second threshold, forgo further processing the respective input patch.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:

acquiring a touch image;

identifying one or more input patches based on the touch image; and

for a respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

identifying a number of strong edges of the respective input patch, wherein a strong edge corresponds to measurements of one or more sensors of a respective edge of a touch-sensitive surface indicative of grounding of an object corresponding to the respective input patch;

in accordance with the identified number of strong edges meeting a first threshold, calculating a confidence value of the respective input patch;

in accordance with the confidence value meeting a confidence threshold, forgo processing the respective input patch; and

in accordance with the confidence value failing to meet the confidence threshold, processing the respective input patch.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the identified number of strong edges meeting a second threshold, the second threshold greater than the first threshold, forgo calculating the confidence value of the respective input patch and setting the confidence value of the respective input patch to a value corresponding to a maximum confidence.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

for the respective input patch of the one or more input patches;

in accordance with the identified number of strong edges failing to meet the first threshold, forgo calculating the confidence value of the respective input patch and setting the confidence value of the respective input patch to a value corresponding to a minimum confidence.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the confidence value is selected from the larger of a normalized signal density of the respective input patch and a normalized occupancy of the respective input patch.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the confidence value is calculated based on a history of confidence values calculated from previous touch images.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein an edge of the respective input patch is a strong edge when a threshold number of sensors of the respective edge of the touch-sensitive surface meets a threshold signal threshold.