Capacitance touch slider
First Claim
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1. A device for measuring a position of a pointing member, comprising:
- a first capacitive node and a second capacitive node each commonly coupled to an input node of a first oscillator having a first variable output frequency;
a third capacitive node and a fourth capacitive node each commonly coupled to an input node of a second oscillator having a second variable output frequency, the first, second, third, and fourth capacitive nodes configured to be adjacent and interdigitated; and
an insulating material including a groove and a plurality of button depressions adjacent to the groove formed therein, wherein the insulating material is disposed over the first, second, third and fourth capacitive nodes.
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Abstract
A device for detecting the position of a human finger or other object on a touch-sensitive scrolling pad. Dual independent oscillators may be used to generate two pulse trains at frequencies dependent upon the capacitance of two conductors resulting from the position of the finger on the conductors. The pulses from each oscillator may be counted over a time interval. A ratio-metric measurement may be taken by calculating the ratio of the two counts, and a sum may also be calculated. The ratio of the two counts relates to finger position on the device, and their sum relates to finger pressure upon the device.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A device for measuring a position of a pointing member, comprising:
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a first capacitive node and a second capacitive node each commonly coupled to an input node of a first oscillator having a first variable output frequency; a third capacitive node and a fourth capacitive node each commonly coupled to an input node of a second oscillator having a second variable output frequency, the first, second, third, and fourth capacitive nodes configured to be adjacent and interdigitated; and an insulating material including a groove and a plurality of button depressions adjacent to the groove formed therein, wherein the insulating material is disposed over the first, second, third and fourth capacitive nodes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8)
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7. A device for measuring a position of a pointing member, comprising:
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a first even plurality of capacitive nodes each commonly coupled to an input node of a first oscillator having a first variable output frequency; and a second even plurality of capacitive nodes interdigitated with the first even plurality of capacitive nodes, the second even plurality of capacitive nodes each commonly coupled to an input node of a second oscillator having a second variable output frequency; wherein measuring the position of the pointing member at least includes evaluating a ratio of the first and second variable output frequency.
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Specification