Integrated pressure sensitive lens assembly
First Claim
1. A touch screen assembly for an electronic device having an LCD or OLED display module, comprising:
- a lens over said display module;
a plurality n=1 . . . m of differentially-mounted pressure sensors mounted beneath said display module and differentially positioned along an x- and y-axis, said pressure sensors being electrically connected to the electronic device for registering a pressure z from a touch of said lens at any position along said x- and y-axis and for providing an analog differential pressure signal z over a duration of said touch of said lens;
a circuit for converting said analog differential pressure signal into a time-based sequence of digital data sets (x1-m, y1-m, z1-m) each data set comprising a sequence of data points x, y, z for each of said plurality n=1. . . m of differentially-mounted pressure sensors measured at successive time instants during the duration of said touch of said lens; and
control software for filtering said time-based sequence of data sets (x1-m, y1-m, z1-m) by removing non-relevant data points x, y, z from said time-based sequence, and for interpreting the filtered data set as an exact touch-coordinate x, y and pressure z resulting from a touch of said lens along said x- and y-axis, and for generating a control signal in accordance with said filtered and interpreted touch coordinate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A touch screen assembly for an electronic device such as a cell phone or PDA. The touch screen assembly generally comprises a floating lens suspended over the display and, optionally, the keypad to allow a degree of freedom. An underlying thin connecting layer such as a flex film is attached beneath the floating lens, and a plurality (for example, four) differentially-mounted pressure sensors are mounted beneath the floating lens and are electrically connected to the electronic device via the flex film. The pressure sensors are differentially positioned along an x- and y-axis for registering a pressure z from a touch to the lens at each of the four positions, to provide four data sets (x1-4, y1-4, z1-4). Control software then interprets the exact touch-coordinate from the four data sets and generates a control signal. An optional haptic response generator and/or motion sensor are also contemplated. When used in a smaller electronics device such as a cell phone or PDA the touch screen sensor technology of the present invention is exceedingly thin and is capable of modular assembly for more-or-less “snap-in” construction.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A touch screen assembly for an electronic device having an LCD or OLED display module, comprising:
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a lens over said display module; a plurality n=1 . . . m of differentially-mounted pressure sensors mounted beneath said display module and differentially positioned along an x- and y-axis, said pressure sensors being electrically connected to the electronic device for registering a pressure z from a touch of said lens at any position along said x- and y-axis and for providing an analog differential pressure signal z over a duration of said touch of said lens; a circuit for converting said analog differential pressure signal into a time-based sequence of digital data sets (x1-m, y1-m, z1-m) each data set comprising a sequence of data points x, y, z for each of said plurality n=1. . . m of differentially-mounted pressure sensors measured at successive time instants during the duration of said touch of said lens; and control software for filtering said time-based sequence of data sets (x1-m, y1-m, z1-m) by removing non-relevant data points x, y, z from said time-based sequence, and for interpreting the filtered data set as an exact touch-coordinate x, y and pressure z resulting from a touch of said lens along said x- and y-axis, and for generating a control signal in accordance with said filtered and interpreted touch coordinate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A touch screen assembly for an electronic device having a display, comprising:
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a floating lens suspended over said display to allow a degree of freedom. an underlying flex film connection layer attached beneath at least a portion of said floating lens; four differentially-mounted pressure sensors mounted beneath said floating lens and differentially positioned along an x- and y-axis, said pressure sensors being electrically connected to the electronic device via said connection layer for registering a pressure z from a touch of said lens at each of said four positions over a duration of said touch of said lens; a circuit for converting said pressure z from a touch of said lens at each of said four positions into a time-based sequence of digital data sets (x1-4, y1-4, z1-4), each data set comprising a sequence of data points x, y, z for each of said four differentially-mounted pressure sensors measured at successive time instants during the duration of said touch of said lens; and control software for filtering said time-based sequence of data sets by removing non-relevant data points x, y, z from said time-based sequence and interpreting said filtered data sets (x1-4, y1-4, z1-4) as a single data set x, y, z) representative of a touch coordinate and for generating a control signal in accordance with said touch coordinate. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A touch screen assembly for an electronic device having an LCD or OLED display module, comprising:
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a lens over said display module; a plurality n=1. . . m of pressure sensors mounted below said lens and differentially positioned along an x- and y-axis, each of said pressure sensors being compressed with a preload force p1 . . . m and electrically connected to the electronic device for registering a pressure Pci-m from a touch of said lens at any position along said x- and y-axis and for providing an analog differential pressure signal over a duration of said touch of said lens; a circuit for converting said analog differential pressure signal into a time-based sequence of data sets (x1-m, y1-m, z1-m), each data set comprising a sequence of data points x, y, z for each of said plurality n=1. . .m of differentially-mounted pressure sensors measured at successive time instants during the duration of said touch of said lens; and control software for compensating said time-based sequence of data sets (xi-m, yi-m, zi-m) by adjusting data points z1-m within said time-based sequence in accordance with a formula Pc1 . . . m=z1-m−
Pc1-m, and for interpreting said modified time-based data sets (xi-m,yi-m, pci-m, as a sin le non-time-based data set x, y, z) resentative of a touch coordinate to provide an exact touch-coordinate and for generating a control signal in accordance with said touch coordinate. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification