Multi-touch input discrimination
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method to discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
- obtaining a proximity image;
segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches;
determining a eccentricity value for each of the plurality of patches;
identifying a first patch as a thumb contact if the eccentricity value of the first patch is greater than a first threshold;
determining a minor radius value for each of the plurality of patches;
ignoring each patch having a minor radius value greater than a second threshold; and
using the identified patch to control an operation of a touch-surface device.
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Abstract
Techniques for identifying and discriminating between different types of contacts to a multi-touch touch-screen device are described. Illustrative contact types include fingertips, thumbs, palms and cheeks. By way of example, thumb contacts may be distinguished from fingertip contacts using a patch eccentricity parameter. In addition, by non-linearly deemphasizing pixels in a touch-surface image, a reliable means of distinguishing between large objects (e.g., palms) from smaller objects (e.g., fingertips, thumbs and a stylus) is described.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method to discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches; determining a eccentricity value for each of the plurality of patches; identifying a first patch as a thumb contact if the eccentricity value of the first patch is greater than a first threshold; determining a minor radius value for each of the plurality of patches; ignoring each patch having a minor radius value greater than a second threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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12. A method to discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; segmenting the proximity image to identify a plurality of patches, each patch having one or more pixels, each pixel having a value; reducing the value of each pixel in a non-linear fashion; determining a minor radius value for each of the plurality of patches; identifying a first patch as a palm contact if the minor radius of the first patch is greater than a specified threshold; and using the identified patch to control an operation of a touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method to discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
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obtaining a proximity image; segmenting the proximity image to identify one or more patches, each patch having a plurality of pixels, each pixel have a value; reducing the value of each pixel in a non-linear fashion; determining an eccentricity value for each of the plurality of patches; determining a minor radius value for each of the plurality of patches; identifying each patch having a minor radius value greater than a first threshold as a palm contact, said patches associated with a first group of patches; identifying each patch having a minor radius value less than the first threshold and an eccentricity value greater than a second threshold as a thumb contact, said patches associated with a second group of patches; identifying each patch having a minor radius value less than the first threshold and an eccentricity value less than the second threshold as a fingertip contact, said patches associated with a third group of patches; and using the identified patches to control an operation of a touch-surface device. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification