Bezel-less acoustic touch apparatus
First Claim
1. An acoustic touch apparatus, comprising:
- a substrate capable of propagating surface acoustic waves, said substrate having a touch surface, a back surface, and a curved connecting surface formed between said touch surface and said back surface; and
at least one acoustic wave transducer and at least one reflective array, said acoustic wave transducer and said reflective array disposed at said back surface, said acoustic wave transducer configured to transmit or receive surface acoustic waves to or from said reflective array, and said reflective array configured to scatter said surface acoustic waves at said back surface to propagate said scattered surface acoustic waves between said back surface and said touch surface via said curved connecting surface.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An acoustic touch apparatus is provided that includes a substrate capable of propagating surface acoustic waves, such as Rayleigh-type or Love-type waves. The substrate has a front surface, a back surface, and a curved connecting surface formed between the front surface and the back surface. The apparatus also includes at least one acoustic wave transducer and at least one reflective array, the acoustic wave transducer and the reflective array behind the back surface of the substrate. The acoustic wave transducer is capable of transmitting or receiving surface acoustic waves to or from the reflective array. The reflective array is capable of acoustically coupling the surface acoustic waves to propagate from the back surface and across the front surface via the curved connecting surface. Various types of acoustic touch apparatus with edge sensitive touch functions can be provided, according to specific embodiments.
-
Citations
30 Claims
-
1. An acoustic touch apparatus, comprising:
-
a substrate capable of propagating surface acoustic waves, said substrate having a touch surface, a back surface, and a curved connecting surface formed between said touch surface and said back surface; and at least one acoustic wave transducer and at least one reflective array, said acoustic wave transducer and said reflective array disposed at said back surface, said acoustic wave transducer configured to transmit or receive surface acoustic waves to or from said reflective array, and said reflective array configured to scatter said surface acoustic waves at said back surface to propagate said scattered surface acoustic waves between said back surface and said touch surface via said curved connecting surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
19. An acoustic touch apparatus, comprising:
-
a substrate capable of propagating surface acoustic waves, said substrate having a touch surface, a back surface, and a curved connecting surface formed between said touch surface and said back surface, wherein said touch surface includes a nominal touch region and a peripheral region external to said nominal touch region, said peripheral region not covered by a bezel; at least one acoustic wave transducer and at least one reflective array, said acoustic wave transducer and said reflective array coupled to said back surface via an acoustically benign layer on said back surface, said acoustic wave transducer configured to transmit or receive surface acoustic waves to or from said reflective array, and said reflective array configured to scatter said surface acoustic waves at said back surface to propagate said scattered surface acoustic waves between said back surface and said touch surface via said curved connecting surface; a controller configured to determine a coordinate of a touch on said nominal touch region, on said peripheral region or on said curved connecting surface, based on detected waveform perturbations of said surface acoustic waves, said controller electrically coupled to said acoustic wave transducer; and a display disposed behind said back surface. - View Dependent Claims (30)
-
-
20. An acoustic touch apparatus, comprising:
-
a substrate capable of propagating surface acoustic waves, said substrate having a touch surface, a back surface, and a curved connecting surface formed between said touch surface and said back surface, wherein said touch surface includes a nominal touch region and a peripheral region external to said nominal touch region, said peripheral region not covered by a bezel; at least one acoustic wave transducer and at least one reflective array, said acoustic wave transducer and said reflective array coupled to said back surface via an acoustically benign layer on said back surface, said acoustic wave transducer configured to transmit or receive surface acoustic waves to or from said reflective array, and said reflective array configured to scatter said surface acoustic waves at said back surface to propagate said scattered surface acoustic waves between said back surface and said touch surface via said curved connecting surface; a controller configured to determine a coordinate of a touch on said nominal touch region, on said peripheral region or on said curved connecting surface, based on detected waveform perturbations of said surface acoustic waves, said controller electrically coupled to said acoustic wave transducer, wherein said controller is further configured to, upon determining said coordinate of said touch on said peripheral region or on said curved connecting surface, generate touch coordinate data for said peripheral region or said curved connecting surface.
-
Specification