Touch interface having microphone to determine touch impact strength

• US 8,411,050 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Zalewski, Gary M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mengistu, Amare
• Assistant Examiner(s): STEPP JONES, SHAWNA T
• Application Number:
  US12/579,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20110084914A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0426 tracking fingers with respect to a virtual keyboard projected or printed on the surface virtual keyboards on touch screens G06F3/04886
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves

Abstract

A computing device receives position coordinates of a touch input region upon a user touching the touch input region. The computing device also receives an audio signal from an audio sensor upon the user touching the touch input region. An impact strength of the user'"'"'s touch is determined based on the audio signal. The computing device performs an action that is associated with the determined impact strength.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of responding to touch based user input, comprising:

determining position coordinates of a touch input region upon a user touching the touch input region;

receiving an audio signal from a microphone upon the user touching the touch input region;

determining an impact strength of the user'"'"'s touch based on the audio signal; and

generating a first command that is associated with the determined impact strength if the determined impact strength exceeds a first threshold, and generating a second command, different than the first command, that is associated with the determined impact strength if the determined impact strength exceeds a second threshold, wherein a host computing device performs a first action based on the generated first command and performs a second action based on the generated second command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a low impact strength is associated with ambient handling of the touch input region and a high impact strength is associated with a deliberate user tap.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

normalizing the audio signal based on the position coordinates.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calibrating the microphone by performing a plurality of taps on the touch input region, each of the plurality of taps occurring at different position coordinates of the touch input region and having an approximately identical impact strength;

measuring the audio signal for each of the plurality of taps; and

normalizing the measured audio signals for the plurality of taps such that they each have approximately the same reading.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting a user to perform one or more soft taps on the touch input region;

measuring audio signals for the one or more soft taps;

requesting the user to perform on or more hard taps on the touch input region;

measuring audio signals for the one or more hard taps; and

setting the first threshold and the second threshold to differentiate between the hard taps and the soft taps based on the measured audio signals for the hard taps and the measured audio signals for the soft taps.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting the user to perform one or more non-tap gestures on the touch input region;

measuring the audio signal received during performance of the one or more non-tap gestures; and

setting the first threshold to differentiate between deliberate user taps and non-tap gestures.

7. An electronic apparatus, comprising:

a position identifier to identify position coordinates corresponding to a location of a touch input region touched by a user;

an audio analyzer to receive an audio signal generated by an audio sensor when the touch input region is touched by the user and to determine an impact strength of the user'"'"'s touch based on the audio signal; and

a controller to receive the position coordinates from the position identifier and the impact strength from the audio analyzer, and to generate a first command that is associated with the determined impact strength if the determined impact strength exceeds a first threshold, and generating a second command, different than the first command, that is associated with the determined impact strength if the determined impact strength exceeds a second threshold, wherein a host computing device to perform a first action based on the generated first command and perform a second action based on the generated second command.

8. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

at least one of a touchpad or a touchscreen that includes the touch input region, wherein the at least one of the touchpad or the touchscreen to send a position signal to the position identifier when the user touches the touch input region.

9. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a camera that is configured to perform video tracking within the touch input region, wherein the camera to send a position signal to the position identifier when the user touches the touch input region.

10. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

the audio sensor, wherein the audio sensor is wirelessly connected with at least one of the host computing device or a wireless interface of the electronic apparatus.

11. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, wherein a low impact strength is associated with ambient handling of the touch input region and a high impact strength is associated with a deliberate user tap.

12. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a display to display a first request for a user to perform one or more soft taps on the touch input region and to display a second request for the user to perform one or more hard taps on the touch input screen;

the audio analyzer to receive audio signals for the one or more soft taps and for the one or more hard taps, and to set the first threshold and the second threshold to differentiate between the hard taps and the soft taps based on the received audio signals for the hard taps and the received audio signals for the soft taps.

13. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

the audio analyzer to receive first audio signals that are known to be caused by non-tap gestures on the touch input region, to receive second audio signals that are known to be caused by deliberate user taps on the touch input region, and to set the first threshold to differentiate between deliberate user taps and non-tap gestures.

14. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, wherein the audio analyzer maintains a lookup table that associates a normalization value with each set of position coordinates, the audio analyzer to receive the position coordinates from the position identifier and to modify the received audio signal based on the normalization value associated with the received position coordinates.

15. The electronic apparatus of claim 7, wherein the audio analyzer includes a normalization model that uses as an input the position coordinates and generates as an output an amplification value, the audio analyzer to receive the position coordinates from the position identifier, to determine the amplification value using the model, and to modify the received audio signal based on the amplification value.