Method of determining contact position in electronic apparatus

• US 8,310,247 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2009
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Ota, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Rodas, Richard Isla
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rhodes-Vivour, Temilade S
• Application Number:
  US12/428,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20090284270A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,300 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 324/661, 178/18.06, 178/19.03, 382/124
• US Class Current: 324/661
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• 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

Abstract

A method of determining a contact position in an electronic apparatus including capacitance sensing circuits that output capacitance measuring signals and light sensing circuits that output light measuring signals includes acquiring the capacitance measuring signals by sequentially scanning the capacitance sensing circuits, determining whether a target object is in contact with a contact surface based on the acquired capacitance measuring signals, acquiring the light measuring signals by sequentially scanning the light sensing circuits after the target object is determined to be in contact with the contact surface, and determining a position of the contact surface, with which the target object is in contact, based on the acquired light measuring signals. The acquiring of the capacitance measuring signals and the determining of whether the target object is in contact with the contact surface are repeated until the target object is determined to be in contact with the contact surface.

Claims

1. A method of determining a contact position in an electronic apparatus including a plurality of capacitance sensing circuits that measures capacitance and a plurality of light sensing circuits that measures light intensities of incident light, the method comprising:

acquiring capacitance measuring signals from the plurality of capacitance sensing circuits by scanning the plurality of capacitance sensing circuits;

determining whether a target object is in contact with a contact surface based on the acquired capacitance measuring signals;

acquiring light measuring signals from the plurality of light sensing circuits by scanning the plurality of light sensing circuits in case that the target object is determined to be in contact with the contact surface in the determining of whether the target object is in contact with the contact surface;

determining whether the target object is distantly positioned from the contact surface based on the acquired light measuring signals after the acquiring of the light measuring signals;

determining a position at the contact surface, with which the target object is in contact, based on the acquired light measuring signals in case that the target object is determined to be in contact with the contact surface in the determining of whether the target object is distantly positioned,

wherein, in case that the target object is determined to be distantly positioned from the contact surface in the determining of whether the target object is distantly positioned, the process proceeds to the acquiring of the capacitance measuring signals,

the number of light sensing circuits is larger than the number of capacitance sensing circuits, a plurality of display rows, wherein the plurality of light sensing circuits are disposed as a plurality of rows at a ratio of three display rows to two light sensing circuit rows and the plurality of capacitance sensing circuits are disposed as a plurality of rows at a ratio of three display rows to one capacitance sensing circuit row, and a number of stages of capacitance shift registers are smaller than that of a number of light shift registers.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the process returns to the acquiring of the capacitance measuring signals when the determining of the position of the contact surface is completed.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the determining of whether the target object is distantly positioned from the contact surface is comparing the light measuring signals with a reference level and determining whether the target object is distantly positioned from the contact surface based on the result of comparison.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring the capacitance measuring signals by sequentially scanning the plurality of capacitance sensing circuits without scanning the plurality of light sensing circuits; and

acquiring the light measuring signals by sequentially scanning the plurality of light sensing circuits without scanning the plurality of capacitance sensing circuits.

5. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the acquiring of the capacitance measuring signals and the determining of whether the target object is in contact with the contact surface are mutually repeated until the target object is determined to be in contact with the contact surface in the determining of whether the target object is in contact with the contact surface.

6. The method according to claim 1,

wherein, when the determining of the position of the contact surface is completed, the process returns to the acquiring of the light measuring signals.