User identification for multi-user touch screens

• US 8,970,502 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2007
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tangiamo Touch Technology AB
• Original Assignee: TouchTable AB
• Inventors: Nordahl, Mats
• Primary Examiner(s): Boddie, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Okebato, Sahlu
• Application Number:
  US11/797,906
• Publication Number:
  US 20070273670A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,856 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 463/37, 178/18.04
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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

Abstract

The invention relates to a touch screen system with a touch screen (400) comprising a transparent and electrically conductive surface (450) arranged to receive touches from users (UA, UB) of the touch screen system; and touch sensitive elements (420) arranged to detect the position of said touches on said electrically conductive surface (450). The touch screen system is further comprising a touch identification system (900) comprising at least two electrodes (EA-ED), at least one transmitting unit (910) connected to the electrically conductive surface (450) for transmitting an identifying signal to said electrically conductive surface (450), and at least two receiving units (900A-900D), each connected to at least one of said electrodes (EA-ED) for detecting said identifying signal when a user (UA, UB) simultaneously touches the electrically conductive surface (450) and an electrode (EA-ED) that is connected to the receiving unit (900A-900D).

Claims

1. A multi-user touch screen system, comprising:

a touch screen, including,

a transparent and electrically conductive surface configured to receive touches from users of the touch screen system;

touch sensitive elements configured to detect a touch on said transparent and electrically conductive surface to generate a touch signal; and

at least one control unit connected to said touch sensitive elements and configured to detect a position of the touch based on the touch signal; and

a touch identification system, including,

at least two electrodes;

a plurality of transmitting units configured to transmit a plurality of unique identifying signals, each of the at least two electrodes being associated with one of the plurality of transmitting units; and

a receiving unit connected to the transparent and electrically conductive surface and configured to detect said unique identifying signals and said touch signal,

wherein said transmitting units and said receiving unit are arranged with respect to said electrically conductive surface and said at least two electrodes so that said receiving unit detects said unique identifying signals from said transmitting units when a user simultaneously touches the electrically conductive surface and one of the at least two electrodes, and

wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive the unique identifying signals as signals separate from the touch signal.

2. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, wherein said control unit is further connected to the touch identification system and is configured to associate a position of a detected touch on said touch screen with one of the identifying signals.

3. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 2, wherein said association is based on a time at which said position was detected.

4. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transparent substrate, wherein said transparent and electrically conductive surface is on an upper surface of said transparent substrate.

5. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit arranged beneath the transparent and electrically conductive surface for presenting moving images to be observed by the users of said touch screen system.

6. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, wherein the transparent and electrically conductive surface is one of a transparent and electrically conductive metal oxide and transparent and electrically conductive polymer.

7. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, wherein the touch sensitive elements are arranged on the transparent and electrically conductive surface.

8. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, wherein the touch screen is one of a resistive touch screen comprising resistive touch sensitive elements, a capacitive touch screen comprising capacitive touch sensitive elements, a SAW touch screen comprising acoustic touch sensitive elements, and an IR touch screen comprising infrared touch sensitive elements.

9. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to detect at least one of a voltage, a current, a frequency and an amplitude that is received from a transmitter, the voltage, current, frequency, and amplitude being associated with a body of the user of said touch screen system.

10. A touch table arrangement comprising a table top provided with the multi-user touch screen system according to claim 1.

11. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 2, wherein said association is based on a magnitude of said touches detected by said touch screen and said touch identification system.

12. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 3, wherein said association is based on a magnitude of said touches detected by said touch screen and said touch identification system.

13. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 2, wherein the transparent and electrically conductive surface is divided into sub-areas being electrically insulated with respect to each other, and each of the sub-areas are connected to the receiver, and said association is further based on a position of the touch with respect to the sub-areas.

14. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 3, wherein the transparent and electrically conductive surface is divided into sub-areas being electrically insulated with respect to each other, and each of the sub-areas are connected to the receiver, and said association is further based on a position of the touch with respect to the sub-areas.

15. The multi-user touch screen system according to claim 4, wherein the transparent and electrically conductive surface is divided into sub-areas being electrically insulated with respect to each other, and each of the sub-areas are connected to the receiver, and said association is further based on a position of the touch with respect to the sub-areas.

16. A multi-user touch screen system, comprising:

a touch screen, including

a transparent and electrically conductive surface configured to conduct at least one identifying signal upon direct contact of a user of the touch screen system with the transparent and electrically conductive surface;

touch sensitive elements configured to detect a touch on said transparent and electrically conductive surface to generate a touch signal;

at least one control unit connected to said touch sensitive elements and configured to detect a position of the touch based on the touch signal; and

a touch identification system, including,

at least two electrodes;

a plurality of transmitting units configured to transmit the identifying signal, each of the at least two electrodes being associated with one of the plurality of transmitting units; and

a receiving unit connected to the transparent and electrically conductive surface and configured to detect the transmitted identifying signal and the touch signal,

wherein said transmitting units and said receiving unit are arranged with respect to said electrically conductive surface and said at least two electrodes so that the receiving unit detects the transmitted identifying signal from the one of the transmitting units when a user simultaneously touches the electrically conductive surface and one of the at least two electrodes, and

wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive the transmitted identifying signal as a signal separate from the touch signal.

17. A multi-user touch screen system, comprising:

a touch screen, including,

a transparent and electrically conductive surface configured to receive touches from users of the touch screen system;

touch sensitive elements configured to detect a touch on said transparent and electrically conductive surface to generate a touch signal; and

at least one control unit connected to said touch sensitive elements and configured to detect a position of the touch based on the touch signal; and

a touch identification system, including,

at least two electrodes;

a plurality of transmitting units configured to transmit a plurality of unique identifying signals, each of the at least two electrodes being associated with one of the plurality of transmitting units; and

a receiving unit connected to said transparent and electrically conductive surface and configured to detect said unique identifying signals and said touch signal,

wherein said transmitting units and said receiving unit are arranged with respect to said electrically conductive surface and said at least two electrodes so that said receiving unit detects said unique identifying signals from said transmitting units when a user simultaneously touches the electrically conductive surface and one of the at least two electrodes,

wherein the unique identifying signals are not the same as the touch signal, and

wherein the transmitting units and the receiving unit are connected to a same ground potential.