Proximity-aware multi-touch tabletop

• US 8,976,135 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: Wigdor, Daniel, Annett, Michelle, Grossman, Tovi, Fitzmaurice, George
• Primary Examiner(s): SHENG, TOM V
• Application Number:
  US13/651,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20130093708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 178 1803- 1807, 178/18.09, 178/18.11, 715/863, 715/864
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• 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 2203/04108 Touchless 2D- digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface without distance measurement in the Z direction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386

Abstract

A proximity-aware multi-touch tabletop is disclosed that includes both a touch screen display and proximity sensors. The proximity sensors are disposed in one or more annular groups around the touch screen display and are positioned in upward- and outward-facing directions. The proximity sensors allow the multi-touch tabletop to sense the distance of a body, arm, hand, or fingers of a user from the multi-touch tabletop. Thus, hand, arm, and finger positions of a user can be determined relative to the body position of the user, which enables the multi-touch tabletop to differentiate between left hand/arm gestures and right hand/arm gestures. Further, because the multi-touch tabletop can correlate left arm and right arm movements to a user body, the multi-touch tabletop can differentiate gestures originating from different users. The ability of the multi-touch tabletop to distinguish between users greatly enhances user experiences, particularly in a multi-user environment.

Claims

1. A multi-touch tabletop, comprising:

a multi-touch display;

an outer ring of sensors disposed around the multi-touch display;

a first ring of vertically-directed proximity sensors disposed around the multi-touch display and configured to detect objects within a first distance of the multi-touch display; and

a second ring of vertically-directed proximity sensors disposed around the multi-touch display and configured to detect objects within a second distance of the multi-touch display.

2. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the first ring of vertically-directed sensors and the second ring of vertically-directed sensors are disposed parallel to one another.

3. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein sensors within the outer ring of sensors are disposed perpendicularly to sensors within the first ring of vertically-directed sensors and the second ring of vertically-directed sensors.

4. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the outer ring of sensors and the first ring of vertically-directed sensors comprise long-range sensors.

5. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 4, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors comprise short-range sensors.

6. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 5, wherein the first ring of vertically-directed sensors is disposed outward of the second ring of vertically-directed sensors.

7. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the outer ring of sensors provides a signal to a software application indicative of a position of a user around the multi-touch tabletop.

8. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 7, wherein the outer ring of sensors provides a signal to the software application indicative of a distance of a user from the multi-touch tabletop.

9. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 8, wherein the outer ring of sensors comprises long-range sensors.

10. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the first ring of vertically-directed sensors provides a signal to a software application indicative of a position of an arm of a user around the multi-touch tabletop.

11. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 10, wherein the first ring of vertically-directed sensors provides a signal to the software application indicative of a distance of the arm of the user from the multi-touch tabletop.

12. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 11, wherein the first ring of vertically-directed sensors comprises long-range sensors.

13. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors provides a signal to a software application indicative of a position of an arm of a user around the multi-touch tabletop.

14. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 13, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors provides a signal to the software application indicative of a distance of the arm of the user from the multi-touch tabletop.

15. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 14, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors comprises short-range sensors.

16. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors is disposed radially inward of the first ring of vertically-directed sensors.

17. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 16, wherein the outer ring of the sensors and first vertically-directed ring of sensors comprise long-range sensors, and the second ring of vertically-directed sensors comprises short-range sensors.

18. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 17, wherein the long-range sensors have a range of about 10 centimeters to about 80 centimeters, and the short-range sensors have a range of about 4 centimeters to about 30 centimeters.

19. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein the second ring of vertically-directed sensors includes more sensors than the first ring of vertically-directed sensors.

20. The multi-touch tabletop of claim 1, wherein sensors of the second ring of vertically directed sensors are spaced closer to one another than sensors of the first ring of vertically-directed sensors.