Degree of freedom extraction from multiple contacts

• US 8,514,183 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Westerman, Wayne Carl, Elias, John G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Amadiz, Rodney
• Application Number:
  US11/559,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20070070051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,471 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-175, 345/179, 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178 1805- 1809
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24137 Distances to cluster centroïds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• 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 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• 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 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/19173 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1983 Syntactic or structural pattern recognition, e.g. symbolic string recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 : Static hand or arm
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/9622 : using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960725 : Charge-transfer

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

Claims

1. A method for generating an input event based on a group of contacts of a touch sensitive surface, each contact having multiple degrees of freedom of an associated touch device on or near the touch sensitive surface, the method comprising:

finding a set of first information of the group of contacts, the first information being a first type of information, and the first information including a first value for each of the contacts;

finding a set of second information of the group of contacts, the second information being a second type of information that is different than the first type of information;

weighting the first information based on the second information to obtain a set of weighted first information, wherein weighting includes one of increasing the first value of one or more of the contacts and decreasing the first value of one or more of the contacts; and

generating, based on the set of weighted first information, one or more input events of an electronic or electromechanical device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, and the second information includes an identity of a finger contact, such that the first information of each finger contact is weighted based on the finger contact'"'"'s identity.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

computing one or more components of motion in one or more of the degrees of freedom of the group of contacts based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events includes generating, based on the one or more computed components of motion, the one or more input events;

wherein computing the one or more components of motion includes computing a rotational velocity component from the position information of the innermost and outermost finger contacts, the rotational velocity component based on a change in a vector angle between the innermost and the outermost finger contacts.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein weighting the first information includes selecting, based on the identities of the finger contacts, the first information of some, but not all, of the finger contacts to include in the set of weighted first information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

computing one or more components of motion in one or more of the degrees of freedom of the group of contacts based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events includes generating, based on the one or more computed components of motion, the one or more input events;

wherein the first information includes position information of a finger contact, the identities of the finger contacts include an innermost finger contact and an outermost finger contact, and weighting the first information includes selecting the position information of only the innermost and outermost finger contacts to include in the set of weighted first information, such that the position information of one or more finger contacts between the innermost and outermost finger contacts is excluded from the computing the one or more components of motion.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the position information includes a current position value and a previous position value of a finger contact.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the innermost finger contact is identified as a thumb finger contact and the outermost finger contact is identified as a pinky finger contact.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein computing the one or more components of motion includes computing a scaling motion component from the position information of the innermost and outermost finger contacts, the scaling motion component based on a change in a distance between the innermost and outermost finger contacts.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein finding the set of second information includes comparing information of a plurality of the contacts, the compared information including one of the first information and other information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first information includes a velocity value of a contact, the other information includes a change in proximity of a contact, finding the set of second information includes comparing a change in proximity of each of the contacts to determine a maximum percent change in proximity of the contacts, and weighting the first information includes decreasing the velocity value of one or more contacts based on the maximum percent change in proximity.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, the first information includes a velocity value of a finger contact, finding the set of second information includes comparing the velocity values of the finger contacts to determine a speed of a fastest finger contact, and weighting the first information includes computing one or more translation weightings based on the speed of the fastest finger contact.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computed translation weightings are related to the ratio of each finger contact'"'"'s speed to the speed of the fastest finger contact.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second information includes a first component of motion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, the first information includes a velocity value of a finger contact, the second information includes polar component speeds of a rotational motion component and a scaling motion component, and weighting the first information includes decreasing the velocity value of one or more of the finger contacts based on magnitudes of the polar component speeds.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein weighting the first information further includes computing a translation weighting for each of the finger contacts, decreasing the velocity value of one or more of the finger contacts includes decreasing the translation weightings, and the method further comprises:

computing a translational velocity average based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events includes generating, based on the translational velocity average, the one or more input events.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the computed translation weightings of innermost and outermost fingers are constant and computed translation weightings of central fingers are inversely related to polar component speeds so as to prevent vertical translation bias while performing hand scaling and rotation but otherwise include all available fingers in the computed translational velocity average.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing one or more components of motion in one or more of the degrees of freedom of the group of contacts based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events includes generating, based on the one or more computed components of motion, the one or more input events.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, the first information includes velocity information of a finger contact, weighting the first information includes determining a translation weighting for one or more finger contacts, and computing the one or more components of motion includes computing a translation velocity vector from a weighted average of the velocity information based on the one or more translation weightings.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second information includes a proximity of a finger contact, and the translation weighting for each finger contact is based on the finger contact'"'"'s proximity.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the second information includes an identity of one or more central finger contacts whose identities are between an innermost finger contact and an outermost finger contact, and determining the translation weighting for one or more finger contacts includes decreasing the translation weightings for each of the one or more central finger contacts.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable program instructions executable to perform a method for generating an input event based on a group of contacts of a touch sensitive surface, each contact having multiple degrees of freedom of an associated touch device on or near the touch sensitive surface, the method comprising:

finding a set of first information of the group of contacts, the first information being a first type of information, and the first information including a first value for each of the contacts;

finding a set of second information of the group of contacts, the second information being a second type of information that is different than the first type of information;

weighting the first information based on the second information to obtain a set of weighted first information, wherein weighting includes one of increasing the first value of one or more of the contacts and decreasing the first value of one or more of the contacts; and

generating, based on the set of weighted first information, one or more input events of an electronic or electromechanical device.

22. The storage medium of claim 21, wherein finding the set of second information includes comparing information of a plurality of the contacts, the compared information including one of the first information and other information.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, the first information includes a velocity value of a finger contact, finding the set of second information includes comparing the velocity values of the finger contacts to determine a speed of a fastest finger contact, and weighting the first information includes computing one or more translation weightings based on the speed of the fastest finger contact.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the computed translation weightings are related to the ratio of each finger contact'"'"'s speed to the speed of the fastest finger contact.

25. The storage medium of claim 21, the method further comprising:

computing one or more components of motion in one or more of the degrees of freedom of the group of contacts based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events includes generating, based on the one or more computed components of motion, the one or more input events.

26. An apparatus including a touch sensitive surface, the apparatus comprising:

a touch processor that finds a set of first information of a group of contacts of the touch sensing surface, each contact having multiple degrees of freedom of an associated touch device on or near the touch sensitive surface, the first information being a first type of information, and the first information including a first value for each of the contacts, and finds a set of second information of the group of contacts, the second information being a second type of information that is different than the first type of information; and

an input event generator that weights the first information based on the second information to obtain a set of weighted first information, wherein weighting includes one of increasing the first value of one or more of the contacts and decreasing the first value of one or more of the contacts, and generates, based on the set of weighted first information, one or more input events.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the touch processor finds the set of second information based on a comparison of information of a plurality of the contacts, the compared information including one of the first information and other information.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the group of contacts includes finger contacts, the first information includes a velocity value of a finger contact, the touch processor finds the set of second information based on a speed of a fastest finger contact, and weighting the first information by the input event generator includes computing one or more translation weightings based on the speed of the fastest finger contact.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the computed translation weightings are related to the ratio of each finger contact'"'"'s speed to the speed of the fastest finger contact.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the input event generator further computes one or more components of motion in one or more of the degrees of freedom of the group of contacts based on the set of weighted first information, wherein generating the one or more input events by the input event generator includes generating, based on the one or more computed components of motion, the one or more input events.