Passive touch system and method of detecting user input
DCFirst Claim
Patent Images
1. A passive touch system comprising:
- a touch surface;
at least two cameras associated with said touch surface, said at least two cameras acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations and having overlapping fields of view;
a digital signal processor associated with each camera, the digital signal processors associated with said at least two cameras selecting pixel subsets of images acquired by said at least two cameras and processing pixel data acquired by the selected pixel subsets to generate pointer characteristic data when a pointer exists in said acquired images; and
a master digital signal processor in communication with said digital signal processors, said master digital signal processor receiving pointer characteristic data from said digital signal processors and triangulating the pointer characteristic data to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface.
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Abstract
A passive touch system includes a passive touch surface and at least two cameras associated with the touch surface. The at least two cameras acquire images of the touch surface from different locations and have overlapping fields of view. A processor receives and processes images acquired by the at least two cameras to detect the existence of a pointer therein and to determine the location of the pointer relative to the touch surface. Actual pointer contact with the touch surface and pointer hover above the touch surface can be determined.
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Citations
109 Claims
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1. A passive touch system comprising:
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a touch surface;
at least two cameras associated with said touch surface, said at least two cameras acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations and having overlapping fields of view;
a digital signal processor associated with each camera, the digital signal processors associated with said at least two cameras selecting pixel subsets of images acquired by said at least two cameras and processing pixel data acquired by the selected pixel subsets to generate pointer characteristic data when a pointer exists in said acquired images; and
a master digital signal processor in communication with said digital signal processors, said master digital signal processor receiving pointer characteristic data from said digital signal processors and triangulating the pointer characteristic data to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A touch system comprising:
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at least two CMOS digital cameras associated with a touch surface, said at least two digital cameras acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations and having overlapping fields of view; and
a processor receiving and processing image data acquired by said at least two digital cameras to detect the existence of a pointer in said images and to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A touch system comprising:
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at least two optical recording devices associated with a touch surface, said at least two optical recording devices acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations and having overlapping fields of view; and
a processor receiving and processing image data acquired by said at least two optical recording devices to detect the existence of a pointer in said images and to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface, wherein said processor includes first and second processing stages, said first processing stage processing pixel data from said at least two optical recording devices, said second processing stage processing image data from said first processing stage to determine the location of the pointer. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A scalable touch system comprising:
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a projector to project an image onto a touch surface;
at least two digital cameras associated with said touch surface, said at least two digital cameras acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations and having overlapping fields of view; and
a processor receiving and processing image data acquired by said at least two digital cameras to detect the existence of a pointer in said images and to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface, the location of said pointer being used to update said projected image, wherein each of said digital cameras includes a pixel array proportional to the number of pixels in said projected image, and wherein said processor is able to resolve the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface with sufficient accuracy with respect to the pixels in said projected image. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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74. A touch system comprising:
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at least two CMOS digital cameras associated with a touch surface and having overlapping fields of view, each of said at least two CMOS digital cameras having an array of pixels, said at least two CMOS digital cameras acquiring images of said touch surface from different locations substantially simultaneously; and
a processor receiving and processing pixel data acquired by a window of contiguous pixels within the pixel array of said at least two CMOS digital cameras to detect the existence of a pointer in said images and to triangulate the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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85. A method of aligning a plurality of digital cameras in a touch system, each digital camera having a selectable pixel array with respect to a touch system touch surface on which a pointer contact is made, said method comprising the steps of:
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acquiring an image of said touch surface;
examining pixels within a subset of said pixel array to determine if the pixel subset is substantially looking along the plane of said touch surface; and
if notadjusting the position of said pixel subset and repeating said acquiring and said examining steps until a pixel subset is determined that looks substantially along the plane of said touch surface. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87, 88)
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89. An imaging assembly comprising:
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a substantially rectangular bezel to surround a display surface; and
a digital camera mounted adjacent each corner of said bezel, said digital cameras being oriented to capture overlapping images of said display surface. - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97)
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98. A touch system comprising:
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a substantially rectangular touch surface; and
a digital camera mounted adjacent each corner of said touch surface, said digital cameras being oriented to capture overlapping images of said touch surface. - View Dependent Claims (99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106)
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107. A method of detecting the position of a pointer relative to a touch surface comprising the steps of:
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acquiring multiple images of a pointer relative to said touch surface;
selecting pixel subsets of said acquired images; and
processing pixel data acquired by said pixel subsets to detect the existence of said pointer therein and to determine the location of said pointer relative to said touch surface using triangulation. - View Dependent Claims (108, 109)
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Specification