Resistive touchscreen having multiple selectable regions for pressure discrimination
First Claim
1. A resistive position touchscreen for providing information as to a point of touch by an object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive position touchscreen comprising:
- first and second closely spaced and separated sheets, said first and second sheets contacting each other at a point when touched by an object at that point, at least one of said first and second sheets divided into a plurality of electrically separated regions;
a resistive layer applied to at least one of said first and second sheets on a surface facing another of said first and second sheets, said resistive layer having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said resistive layer;
field generating means connected to opposite edges of said resistive layer for producing electrical fields in said resistive layer;
a circuit means for applying voltages in proper timed sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of separated regions to ascertain information as to a point of touch; and
a switch means connected to each of said separated regions to selectively connect at least one of said separated regions with said circuit means whereby a selected portion of said resistive layer is active for providing information as to the position of touch of the object.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A resistive two sheet touchscreen that provides discrimination between objects touching the surface thereof. This is achieved by subdividing at least one sheet into a selected number of separated portions of selected configuration. Each of these portions is connected through a switch apparatus to circuitry for evaluating a signal on the separated portions corresponding to the position of touch. This switch can be utilized to deactivate any selected portion so that an object contacting this portion provides no signal to the circuitry. Any active portion that remains connected to the circuitry provides position information as with any touchscreen. Accordingly, for example, the touchscreen can be made insensitive to portions of a hand, while being sensitive to a stylus held by that hand. An embodiment utilizing a single resistive layer coupled with a conductive layer is described together with an embodiment utilizing two resistive layers, are described.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A resistive position touchscreen for providing information as to a point of touch by an object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive position touchscreen comprising:
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first and second closely spaced and separated sheets, said first and second sheets contacting each other at a point when touched by an object at that point, at least one of said first and second sheets divided into a plurality of electrically separated regions; a resistive layer applied to at least one of said first and second sheets on a surface facing another of said first and second sheets, said resistive layer having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said resistive layer; field generating means connected to opposite edges of said resistive layer for producing electrical fields in said resistive layer; a circuit means for applying voltages in proper timed sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of separated regions to ascertain information as to a point of touch; and a switch means connected to each of said separated regions to selectively connect at least one of said separated regions with said circuit means whereby a selected portion of said resistive layer is active for providing information as to the position of touch of the object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A resistive touchscreen for providing information as to a point of touch by an object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive touchscreen comprising:
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a resistive layer having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said resistive layer, said resistive layer defining perimeter edges; field generating means connected proximate said perimeter edges of said resistive layer for producing intersecting orthogonal electrical fields in said resistive layer; a conductive layer overlaying and uniformly spaced from said resistive layer for contacting said resistive layer when touched by the object, said conductive layer divided into a plurality of electrically separated conductive regions; a circuit means for applying voltages in proper timed sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of conductive regions to ascertain the information as to the point of touch; and a switch means connected to each of said conductive regions to selectively connect at least one of said conductive regions with said circuit means whereby a portion of said resistive layer associated with said connected conductive region is active for providing information at said circuit means as to the position of a touch of the object to said connected conductive region, and whereby portions of said resistive layer associated with conductive regions not attached by said switch means to said circuit means are inactive as to providing position information. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A resistive touchscreen for providing information as to a point of touch by an object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive touchscreen comprising:
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a substrate; a resistive coating applied to a surface of said substrate, said resistive coating having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said resistive coating, said resistive coating defining perimeter edges; field generating means connected proximate said perimeter edges of said resistive coating for producing orthogonal electrical fields in said resistive coating; a conductive layer overlaying and uniformly spaced from said resistive coating for contacting said resistive coating when touched by the object, said conductive layer divided into a plurality of electrically separated conductive regions; insulator means for preventing inadvertent contact between said conductive layer and said resistive coating; a circuit means for applying voltages in proper time sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of conductive regions to ascertain the information as to the point of touch; and a switch means connected to each of said conductive regions to selectively connect at least one of said conductive regions with said circuit means whereby a portion of said resistive coating associated with said connected conductive region is active for providing information at said circuit means as to the position of a touch of the object to said connected conductive region, and whereby portions of said resistive coating associated with conductive regions not attached by said switch means to said circuit means are inactive as to providing position information. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A resistive touchscreen for providing information as to loci of points along a line of touch by a hand-held object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive touchscreen comprising:
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a substrate; a resistive coating applied to a surface of said substrate, said resistive coating having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said resistive coating, said resistive coating defining perimeter edges; field generating means connected proximate said perimeter edges of said resistive coating for producing orthogonal electrical fields in said resistive coating; a conductive layer overlaying and uniformly spaced from said resistive coating for contacting said resistive coating when touched by the object, said conductive layer divided into a plurality of electrically separated conductive regions, at least one of said regions for receiving the line of touch by the hand-held object and at least one region for supporting the hand; insulator means for preventing inadvertent contact between said conductive regions and said resistive coating; a circuit means for applying voltages in proper time sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of conductive regions to ascertain the information as to the loci of points of the touch; and a switch means connected to each of said conductive regions to selectively connect at least one of said conductive regions with said circuit means whereby a portion of said resistive coating associated with said connected conductive region is active for providing information at said circuit means as to the loci of points of the touch of the object to said connected conductive region, and whereby portions of said resistive coating associated with conductive regions not attached by said switch means to said circuit means are inactive as to providing position information to discriminate against touch of the hand. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 18, 19)
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17. A resistive position touchscreen for providing information as to a point of touch by an object, and selectively discriminating against contact of other objects, said resistive touchscreen comprising:
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a first resistive layer having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said first resistive layer, said first resistive layer defining perimeter edges; a second resistive layer closely spaced from said first resistive layer, said second resistive layer having a selected substantially uniform resistivity throughout said second resistive layer of a value corresponding to said resistivity of said first resistive layer, said second resistive layer defining perimeter edges, at least one of said first and second resistive layers divided into a plurality of electrically separated regions; electrical field generating means connected proximate opposite of said perimeter edges of said first and second resistive layers for producing intersecting electrical fields in said resistive touchscreen in alternating timed sequence; a circuit means for applying voltages in proper timed sequence to said field generating means, and for receiving and analyzing signals from said plurality of separated regions to ascertain the information as to the point of touch; and a switch means connected to each of said electrically separated regions to selectively connect at least one of said separated regions with said circuit means whereby a portion of said at least one of said first and second resistive layers associated with said connected separated region is active for providing information at said circuit means as to the position of a touch of the object to said connected separated region, and whereby portions of said at least one of said first and second resistive layers associated with separated regions not attached by said switch means to said circuit means are inactive as to providing position information. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification