Detecting multiple simultaneous touches on a touch-sensor device

• US 8,525,799 B1
• Filed: 03/28/2008
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Monterey Research, LLC (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: Grivna, Edward L., Konstas, Jason, Brasek, Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): Beck, Alexander S
• Assistant Examiner(s): HERMANN, KIRK W
• Application Number:
  US12/079,866
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 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 apparatus and a method for resolving locations of two or more substantially simultaneous touches on a split touch-sensor device. The method may include detecting multiple substantially simultaneous touches on a touch-sensor device having multiple sections in at least one dimension of the touch-sensor device, and resolving locations of the multiple substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device without an all-points-addressable (APA) array. Resolving the multiple locations includes resolving a first location in a first section of the multiple sections and resolving a second location in a second section that is adjacent to the first section of the touch-sensor device. The apparatus may include a first set of sensor elements disposed in a first axis in a plane of a touch-sensor device, and a second set of sensor elements and a third set of sensor elements disposed in a second axis in the plane.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a first set of sensor elements disposed in a first axis in a plane of a touch-sensor device;

a second set of sensor elements and a third set of sensor elements disposed in a second axis in the plane, wherein the second set of sensor elements is disposed in a first section of the touch-sensor device and the third set of sensor elements is disposed in a second section of the touch-sensor device that is adjacent to the first section, wherein the first set, second set, and third set of sensor elements are configured to be separately scanned to detect a presence of one or more conductive objects on the touch-sensor device; and

a processing device coupled to the first set, second set, and third set of sensor elements, wherein the processing device is configured to detect the presence of the one or more conductive objects on the touch-sensor device, and wherein the processing device is configured to resolve a plurality of locations of a plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device without an all-points-addressable array of sensor elements in the touch-sensor device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device is configured to resolve the plurality of locations by resolving a first location of the plurality of locations in the first section of the second axis of the touch-sensor device, and resolving a second location in the second section of the second axis of the touch-sensor device using the first, second, and third sets of sensor elements.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device comprises a capacitance-sensing circuit to separately scan the first, second, and third sets of sensor elements.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device comprises a plurality of capacitance-sensing circuits to separately scan the first, second, and third sets of sensor elements.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second set of sensor elements comprises:

a first subset of sensor elements disposed in the second axis in the plane, wherein the first subset is disposed in a third section of the touch-sensor device; and

a second subset of sensor elements disposed in the second axis in the plane, wherein the second subset is disposed in a fourth section of the touch-sensor device that is adjacent to the third section, wherein the first set, third set, first subset, and second subset of sensor elements are configured to be separately scanned to detect the presence of the one or more conductive objects on the second, third, and fourth sections of the second axis of the touch-sensor device.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the processing device is configured to resolve the plurality of locations by resolving a single location of the plurality of locations, if any, on each of the second, third, and fourth sections of the second axis of the touch-sensor device using the first set, third set, first subset, and second subset of sensor elements.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first set of sensor elements comprises:

a first subset of sensor elements disposed in the first axis in the plane, wherein the first subset is disposed in a third section of the touch-sensor device; and

a second subset of sensor elements disposed in the first axis in the plane, wherein the second subset is disposed in a fourth section of the touch-sensor device that is adjacent to the third section, wherein the second set, third set, first subset, and second subset of sensor elements are configured to be separately scanned to detect the presence of the one or more conductive objects on the first, second, third, and fourth sections of the touch-sensor device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing device is configured to resolve the plurality of locations by resolving a single location of the plurality of locations, if any, on each of the first and second sections of the second axis and the third and fourth sections of the first axis of the touch-sensor device using the second set, third set, first subset, and second subset of sensor elements.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing device comprises a plurality of capacitance-sensing circuits to separately scan the first set, second set, and third set of sensor elements substantially parallel in time.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fourth set of sensor elements disposed in a third axis in the plane of the touch-sensor device, wherein the first set, second set, third set, and fourth set of sensor elements are configured to be separately scanned to detect the presence of the one or more conductive objects on the first and second sections of the second axis of the touch-sensor device, and wherein the processing device is configured to resolve up to two locations of the plurality of locations, if any, on each of the first and second sections of the touch-sensor device using the first set, second set, third set, and fourth set of sensor elements.

11. A method, comprising:

detecting a plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on a touch-sensor device having a plurality of sections in at least one axis of the touch-sensor device; and

resolving a plurality of locations of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device when the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches are detected on the touch-sensor device without an all-points-addressable array (APA) array of sensor elements in the touch-sensor device, wherein said resolving comprises;

resolving a first location of the plurality of locations in a first section of the plurality of sections; and

resolving a second location of the plurality of locations in a second section of the plurality of sections that is adjacent to the first section;

wherein resolving each of the first and second locations comprises;

scanning a first set of sensor elements disposed in a first axis of the touch-sensor device;

scanning a second set of sensor elements disposed in a second axis of the touch-sensor device, wherein the second set of sensor elements are disposed in the first section; and

scanning a third set of sensor elements disposed in the second axis of the touch-sensor device, wherein the third set of sensor elements are disposed in the second section.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said resolving each of the first and second locations further comprises:

resolving the first location of a first touch of the plurality of simultaneous touches in the first section using scan results from the first set of sensor elements and the second set of sensor elements; and

resolving the second location of a second touch of the plurality of simultaneous touches in the second section using scan results from the first set of sensor elements and the third set of sensor elements.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said scanning the second and third sets of sensor elements comprises separately scanning the first section and the second section substantially parallel in time.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising resolving a plurality of locations, if any, in one of the plurality of sections of the touch-sensor device, wherein said resolving the plurality of locations in one of the plurality of sections comprises:

sensing for presences of conductive objects on the first axis of the touch-sensor device;

sensing for presences of conductive objects on the second axis of the touch-sensor device;

sensing for presences of conductive objects on a third axis of the touch-sensor device;

determining locations where the sensed presences of the three axis intersect on the one of the plurality of sections of the touch-sensor device to determine the actual touches;

determining an actual touch when the number of intersections of the presences is three; and

determining an invalid touch when the number of intersections of the presence is less than three.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein resolving the plurality of locations of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device further comprises:

storing in memory the first and second locations detected in a first scan;

detecting a second plurality of substantially simultaneous touches during a second scan;

identifying an invalid touch, if any, when the locations of the detected second plurality of substantially simultaneous touches are not within a specified limit in the change of distance from the first and second locations stored in the memory; and

removing the identified invalid touch, if any.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein resolving the plurality of locations of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device further comprises resolving the plurality of locations when one of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches moves from being detected in the second section to being detected in the first section.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting a first touch of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches in the first section and a second touch of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches in the second section during a first scan;

detecting the first and second touches in the first section during a second scan;

identifying an invalid touch, if any, created by the presence of the first and second touches both being detected in the first section using the locations of the first and second touches detected during the first scan; and

removing the identified invalid touch, if any, to resolve the plurality of locations of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches on the touch-sensor device.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting a first touch of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches in the first section and a second touch of the plurality of substantially simultaneous touches in the second section during a first scan;

storing in memory information regarding the locations of the first and second touches detected in the first scan;

determining whether each touch detected during the first scan is within a specified distance from the boundary between the first and second sections;

detecting the first and second touches in the first section during a second scan;

identifying valid touches for the first and second touches in the first section during the second scan using the stored information to resolve the locations of the first and second touches within the first section during the second scan;

removing an invalid touch, if any, created in the first section during the second scan using the stored information to resolve the locations of the first and second touches within the first second during the second scan.