Multi-touch and single touch detection

• US 8,289,289 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: N-Trig Ltd (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rimon, Ori, Perski, Haim, Ben-David, Amihai, Zachut, Rafi
• Primary Examiner(s): Sniezek, Andrew L
• Application Number:
  US12/417,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20090251434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0442 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for transmitting changes in electrical potential to be received by the digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means

Abstract

An input device comprises a touch sensitive sensor operative to sense finger touch, a detection unit controllable to apply a single touch detection method over at least one area of the touch sensitive sensor and a multi-touch detection method over at least one other area of same touch sensitive sensor, and a controller operative to set the areas of single touch and multi-touch detection.

Claims

1. An input device comprising:

a touch sensitive sensor operative to sense finger touch;

a detection unit controllable to apply a single touch detection method over at least one area of the touch sensitive sensor and a multi-touch detection method over at least one other area of same touch sensitive sensor; and

a controller operative to set the areas of single touch and multi-touch detection, wherein a refresh rate associated with the touch sensitive sensor is responsive of a size of the area where the multi-touch method is applied and wherein limiting size of the area where the multi-touch method is applied provides for increasing the refresh rate of the input device.

2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit is operative to apply the multi-touch detection method over a plurality of different areas.

3. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one other area detected based on the multi-touch detection method is sampled at a lower resolution than the at least one area detected based on the single touch detection method.

4. The input device according to claim 1, wherein during a single sampling cycle, the controller is operative to provide for first sampling the touch sensitive sensor based on the single touch detection method and subsequently sampling an area applied for multi-touch detection based on the multi-touch detection method.

5. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the touch sensitive sensor provides for detecting stylus input in an area from the at least one area set for single touch detection and the at least one other area set for multi-touch detection.

6. The input device according to claim 5, wherein the input device provides for sampling touch and stylus signals on the conductive lines substantially simultaneously.

7. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the different detection methods are associated with the detecting unit triggering or interrogating the touch sensitive sensor with different frequencies.

8. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the single touch and multi-touch areas area are sampled substantially simultaneously.

9. The input device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the areas is dynamically defined.

10. The input device according to claim 1, wherein during a single sampling cycle, the controller is operative to sample at least a portion of the touch sensitive sensor based on the first touch detection method and subsequently sample at least another portion of the touch sensitive sensor based on the second touch detection method.

11. An input device comprising:

a touch sensitive sensor operative to sense finger touch;

a detection unit controllable to apply a single touch detection method over at least one area of the touch sensitive sensor and a multi-touch detection method over at least one other area of same touch sensitive sensor; and

a controller operative to set the areas of single touch and multi-touch detection, wherein the controller is operative to provide for sampling output from a same conductive line over a first period based on the single touch detection method and over a second period based on the multi-touch detection method and wherein the detection unit is operative to switch to an alternate circuit path during the second sampling period.

12. The input device according to claim 11, wherein the controller is operative to dynamically set areas for detecting with the single touch detection method and for detecting with the multi-touch detection method.

13. The input device according to claim 12, wherein the controller sets the at least one area and the last least one other area based on requirements of an application running on a host associated with the touch sensitive sensor.

14. The input device according to claim 11, wherein a refresh rate associated with the touch sensitive sensor is responsive of a size of the area where the multi-touch method is applied and wherein limiting size of the area where the multi-touch method is applied provides for increasing the refresh rate of the input device.

15. The input device according to claim 11, wherein the touch sensitive sensor is formed with a plurality of conductive lines formed in a grid.

16. The input device according to claim 15, wherein at least one of the conductive lines spans at least two areas where different detection methods are applied.

17. The input device according to claim 16, wherein the controller is operative to provide for sampling output from a same conductive line over a first period based on the single touch detection method and over a second period based on the multi-touch detection method.

18. The input device according to claim 17, wherein the detection unit is operative to switch to an alternate circuit path during the second sampling period.

19. The input device according to claim 15 wherein the single touch detection method is based on detecting a difference signal between parallel conductive lines of the grid.

20. The input device according to claim 15, wherein the detection unit is operative to simultaneously trigger and sample the conductive lines over the single touch detection area.

21. The input device according to claim 15, wherein the detection unit is operative to sequentially trigger conductive lines along one axis of the grid over the multi-touch detection area.

22. The input device according to claim 21, wherein the detection unit is operative to sample conductive lines within the multi-touch detection area in response to each trigger.

23. The input device according to claim 15, wherein the controller is operative to provide for sampling every other conductive line in a multi-touch detection area over a first sampling cycle and to sample all lines not sampled in the first sampling cycle during a subsequent sampling cycle.

24. The input device according to claim 11, wherein the detection unit is operative to apply the multi-touch detection method over a plurality of different areas.

25. The input device according to claim 11, wherein during a single refresh cycle, the controller is operative to sample at least a portion of the touch sensitive sensor based on the first touch detection method and subsequently sample at least another portion of the touch sensitive sensor based on the second touch detection method.

26. An input device comprising:

a touch sensitive sensor operative to sense finger touch, wherein the touch sensitive sensor is formed with a plurality of conductive lines formed in a grid;

a detection unit controllable to apply a single touch detection method over at least one area of the touch sensitive sensor and a multi-touch detection method over at least one other area of same touch sensitive sensor; and

a controller operative to set the areas of single touch and multi-touch detection, wherein the controller is operative to provide for sampling every other conductive line in a multi-touch detection area over a first sampling cycle and to sample all lines not sampled in the first sampling cycle during a subsequent sampling cycle.