Negative pixel compensation

• US 8,754,874 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Vieta, William Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Lubit, Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US14/048,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20140035854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 252 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 345/174
• 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 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04182 Filtering of noise external to the device and not generated by digitiser components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• 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

Negative pixel compensation in a touch sensor panel is disclosed. A method can compensate for a negative pixel effect in touch signal outputs due to poor grounding of an object touching the panel. To do so, the method can include determining at least one bound for a negative pixel compensation factor based on touch signal values, estimating the compensation factor within the determined bound based on the touch signal values that are negative, where the negative values indicate the presence of the negative pixel effect, and applying the estimated compensation factor to the touch signal outputs to compensate the touch signal values for the negative pixel effect.

Claims

1. A method for compensating a touch image for a negative pixel effect, the method comprising:

acquiring a touch image from a touch sensor panel;

analyzing negative pixel values, indicative of a grounding condition of an object touching or in close proximity to the touch sensor panel, of the touch image to determine a compensation factor;

applying the determined compensation factor to the touch image to produce a compensated image absent substantially all the negative pixel values, wherein the compensation factor is based on the acquired touch image and the grounding condition; and

selectively scaling the compensated image or the touch image to provide image display consistency.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively scaling the compensated image or the touch image comprises scaling the compensated image so that an overall energy of the compensated image is substantially the same as an overall energy of the touch image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein scaling the compensated image comprises:

choosing a scale factor that scales high pixel values of the compensated image to high pixel values of the touch image; and

applying the scale factor to all of the pixel values of the compensated image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively scaling the compensated image or the touch image comprises scaling the touch image so that an overall intensity of the touch image is substantially the same as an overall intensity of the compensated image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein scaling the touch image comprises:

choosing a scale factor that scales high pixel values of the touch image to high pixel values of the compensated image; and

applying the scale factor to all of the pixel values of the touch image.

6. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at least one characteristic associated with the touch sensor panel, wherein the characteristic is a touch type;

wherein the determined compensation factor applied to the touch image is based on compatibility between the determined compensation factor and the determined characteristic.