Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback
First Claim
1. An electronic device comprising:
- storage and processing circuitry; and
a track pad coupled to the storage and processing circuitry, wherein the track pad has an active surface and a touch pad member that extends across substantially all of the active surface, a touch sensor array coupled to the touch pad member, force sensors coupled to the touch pad member that produce force sensor signals indicative of how forcefully an external object is pressing on the touch pad member, and an actuator coupled to the touch pad member that produces tactile feedback by moving the touch pad member in response to the force sensor signals, wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to use the touch sensor array to detect gesturing activity on the track pad by identifying gesturing movement across the active surface of the track pad and is configured to momentarily inhibit movement of the touch pad member by the actuator in response to detecting the gesturing activity, wherein the gesturing movement across the active surface of the track pad is associated with multiple locations on the active surface of the track pad.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic devices may use touch pads that have touch sensor arrays, force sensors, and actuators for providing tactile feedback. A touch pad may be mounted in a computer housing. The touch pad may have a rectangular planar touch pad member that has a glass layer covered with ink and contains a capacitive touch sensor array. Force sensors may be mounted under each of the four corners of the rectangular planar touch pad member. The force sensors may be used to measure how much force is applied to the surface of the planar touch pad member by a user. Processed force sensor signals may indicate the presence of button activity such as press and release events. In response to detected button activity or other activity in the device, actuator drive signals may be generated for controlling the actuator. The user may supply settings to adjust signal processing and tactile feedback parameters.
253 Citations
29 Claims
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1. An electronic device comprising:
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storage and processing circuitry; and a track pad coupled to the storage and processing circuitry, wherein the track pad has an active surface and a touch pad member that extends across substantially all of the active surface, a touch sensor array coupled to the touch pad member, force sensors coupled to the touch pad member that produce force sensor signals indicative of how forcefully an external object is pressing on the touch pad member, and an actuator coupled to the touch pad member that produces tactile feedback by moving the touch pad member in response to the force sensor signals, wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to use the touch sensor array to detect gesturing activity on the track pad by identifying gesturing movement across the active surface of the track pad and is configured to momentarily inhibit movement of the touch pad member by the actuator in response to detecting the gesturing activity, wherein the gesturing movement across the active surface of the track pad is associated with multiple locations on the active surface of the track pad. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of operating a computer track pad that has a touch pad member with a touch sensor array, force sensors connected to the touch pad member, and an actuator, comprising:
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with the touch sensor array, determining a location of an external object in contact with the touch pad member of the track pad; with each of the force sensors, measuring how much force is applied to the touch pad member of the track pad with the external object to produce data relative to how much force is applied to the touch pad member; with the actuator, imparting global movement to the touch pad member of the track pad based at least partly on the data gathered with the force sensors, wherein the actuator is driven by actuator drive signals to impart the movement to the touch pad member of the track pad; and adjusting the actuator drive signals based at least partly on user-defined driver settings. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer track pad system, comprising:
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a rigid rectangular touch pad member that includes a capacitive touch sensor array and that has four corners; four force sensors, each force sensor being coupled to a respective one of the four corners; at least one actuator that is connected to an edge of the rigid rectangular touch pad member by a coupling member and that imparts movement to all of the rigid rectangular touch pad member in response to actuator drive signals; and circuitry that processes touch sensor data from the capacitive touch sensor array and analog force data from the force sensors and that produces the actuator drive signals for the actuator based on the touch sensor data from the capacitive touch sensor array and based on the analog force data from the force sensors, wherein each of the four force sensors produces a corresponding analog force signal and wherein the circuitry is configured to process the analog force signals from the four force sensors to produce an average force signal, wherein the circuitry is configured to identify button press and button release activity by processing the average force signal and wherein the button press and button release activity is indicative of forces applied to the rigid rectangular touch member by a user. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification