Multi-touch detection panel with disambiguation of touch coordinates

• US 8,519,965 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cady, Andrew N, Ishikawa, Tomohiro, Polak, Robert D
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hegarty, Kelly B
• Application Number:
  US12/107,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20090267903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,952 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345173-174, 345/179, 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178 1805- 1807, 178/19.01, 178/8.01, 178 1903- 19041, 463/37
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 2203/04808 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 3/04166 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 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes

Abstract

An multi-touch detection system (100) separately determines each of the coordinates of multiple touches and is able to correctly pair the coordinates, the touch panel includes multiple (e.g., two or four) separate sections (104, 106, 404, 406, 504, 506, 508, 510) to detect touches in different areas. The system (100) is able to operate at high refresh rates allowing speed sensitive applications to be supported.

Claims

1. A multi-touch detection system comprising:

a touch panel comprising a first section and a second section, wherein said first section and said second section are formed on a common base and are based on the same physical principle for touch detection;

a first sensing subsystem for;

separately detecting, at a first time period T1, a first coordinate of a pair of coordinates and a second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for a first touch of said first section; and

separately detecting, at a successive second time period T2 following after said first time period T1, said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates and said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of the first touch of said first section; and

a second sensing subsystem for;

separately detecting, at said first time period T1, a first coordinate of a pair of coordinates and a second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for a second touch of said second section, and

separately detecting, at said successive second time period T2 following after said first time period T1, said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates and said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of the second touch of said second section;

wherein said first touch of said first section and said second touch of said second section are contemporaneous and in different locations; and

a master controller, coupled to the first sensing subsystem and the second sensing subsystem, for interpreting changes in the sensed pairs of coordinates for the first touch of said first section and the second touch of the second section, between the first time period T1 and the second time period T2, as a single multi-touch gesture for entering a command to a display controller.

2. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 1 wherein said first section and said second section are rectangular in shape and said first coordinate and said second coordinate are Cartesian coordinates.

3. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 2 further comprising:

a third section and a fourth section;

a third sensing subsystem for separately detecting said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates for each touch of said third section and separately detecting said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for each touch of said third section; and

a fourth sensing subsystem for separately detecting said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates of each touch of said fourth section and separately detecting said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for each touch of said fourth section.

4. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 3 wherein said first section and said second section are arranged side-by-side and said third section and said fourth section are arranged side-by-side;

and wherein said first section and said second section are arranged above said third section and said fourth section respectively.

5. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 1 wherein said first sensing subsystem comprises:

a first plurality of electrodes;

and said second sensing subsystem comprises;

a second plurality of electrodes, and

wherein said first plurality of electrodes and said second plurality of electrodes are coupled to at least one electrical circuit that is adapted to measure changes in electrical capacitance of said electrodes induced by touches.

6. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 5 wherein said at least one electrical circuit comprises at least one microcontroller.

7. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 6 wherein said at least one microcontroller comprises:

a first microcontroller and a second microcontroller,

wherein said first microcontroller is coupled to said first plurality of electrodes and said second microcontroller is coupled to said second plurality of electrodes.

8. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 5 wherein said at least one electrical circuit is adapted to measure changes in capacitance.

9. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 5 wherein said first plurality of electrodes and said second plurality of electrodes are transparent.

10. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 9 further comprising a display.

11. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 1 further comprising a display.

12. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 1 wherein said first section and said second section are juxtaposed.

13. The multi-touch detection system according to claim 1 wherein said physical principle comprises one of:

optical, acoustical, resistive, and capacitive.

14. A method of detecting multiple touches comprising:

at a first time period T1 using a first sensing sub-system to detect coordinates of a first touch in a first part of a touch panel;

at said first time period T1 using a second sensing sub-system to detect coordinates of a second touch in a second part of said touch panel;

at a successive second time period T2 following after the first time period T1, using the first sensing sub-system to detect new coordinates of the first touch in the first part of said touch panel; and

at the successive second time period T2 following after the first time period T1, using the second sensing sub-system to detect new coordinates of the second touch in the second part of said touch panel,

wherein said first part and said second part of said touch panel are formed on a common base and are based on same physical principle for touch detection,

further wherein said first touch of said first part and said second touch of said second part of said touch panel are contemporaneous, and

wherein changes, between the first time period T1 and at the second time period T2, in the coordinates of the first touch of said first section and the second touch of the second section are interpreted as a single multi-touch gesture.

15. A method of detecting multiple touches according to claim 14 wherein said first touch of said first part and said first touch of said second part of said touch panel are in different locations.

16. A user interface comprising:

a display; and

a multi-touch detection system, said multi-touch detection system comprising;

a touch panel overlying said display said touch panel comprising;

a first section and a second section formed on a common base;

a first sensing subsystem for;

separately detecting, at a first time period T1, a first coordinate of a pair of coordinates for each touch of said first section and separately detecting a second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for each touch of said first section, and

separately detecting, at a successive second time period T2 following after said first time period T1, said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of each touch of said first section and separately detecting said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of each touch of said first section; and

a second sensing subsystem for;

separately detecting, at said first time period T1, a first coordinate of a pair of coordinates of each touch of said second section and separately detecting a second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for each touch of said second section, and

separately detecting, at said successive second time period T2 following after said first time period T1, said first coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of each touch of said second section and separately detecting said second coordinate of said pair of coordinates for new coordinates of each touch of said second section;

wherein said each touch of said first section and said each touch of said second section are contemporaneous; and

wherein changes, between the first time period T1 and at the second time period T2, in the coordinates of each touch of said first section and each touch of said second section are interpreted by a master controller as a single multi-touch gesture for changing a graphic on the display.