Multi-stage stylus detection

• US 9,013,429 B1
• Filed: 01/14/2013
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wacom Co Limited (Wacom)
• Original Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (Infineon Technologies AG)
• Inventors: Krekhovetskyy, Mykhaylo, Omelchuk, Ruslan, Kremin, Viktor
• Primary Examiner(s): Sharifi-Tafreshi, Koosha
• Application Number:
  US13/741,145
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/174, 345/179, 178/18.03, 178/18.06, 178/19.03, 178/18.07, 178/19.01, 178/19.04, 178/20.01
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• 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 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0441 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for receiving changes in electrical potential transmitted by the digitiser, e.g. tablet driving signals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0442 using active external devices, e.g. active pens, for transmitting changes in electrical potential to be received by the digitiser

Abstract

A system comprises a processing device and a capacitive sense array that includes a plurality of electrodes. The system receives a first signal from a first scan of electrodes in a capacitive sense array. The system processes the first signal using a first set of sequences to detect a stylus. The system receives a second scan from a second scan of electrodes in a capacitive sense array. The system processes the second signal using a second set of sequences to detect the stylus.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a sense array comprising a plurality of electrodes, wherein the plurality of electrodes is configured to detect a stylus proximate to the sense array and a touch object proximate to the sense array; and

a processing device coupled to the sense array and configured to;

receive a first signal and a second signal from the sense array; and

process the first signal using a first set of sequences and the second signal using a second set of sequences to detect the stylus,

wherein the processing device is coupled to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and wherein receiving the first and the second signals comprises;

setting the ADC to a first sampling frequency,

receiving the first signal from the ADC,

setting the ADC to a second sampling frequency, and

receiving the second signal from the ADC.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device further comprises:

a first processing stream to process a first in-phase component of the first signal and a second in-phase component of the second signal; and

a second processing stream to process a first quadrature component of the first signal and a second quadrature component of the second signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first processing stream comprises a first multiplier to multiply the first signal with a first demodulation sequence from the first set of sequences to obtain the first in-phase component and multiply the second signal with a second demodulation sequence from the second set of sequences to obtain the second in-phase component, and wherein the second processing stream comprises a second multiplier to multiply the first signal with a third demodulation sequence from the first set of sequences to obtain the first quadrature component and multiply the second signal with a fourth demodulation sequence from the second set of sequences to obtain the second quadrature component.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first demodulation sequence and the third demodulation sequence are orthogonal sequences and wherein the second demodulation sequence and the fourth demodulation sequence are orthogonal sequences.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first set of sequences and the second set of sequences comprise numerical values that are multiplied by a plurality of coefficients.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first signal is received from a subset of the plurality of electrodes in the sense array and wherein the second signal is received from the plurality of electrodes in the sense array.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

switch the sense array to a stylus mode in response to detecting the stylus proximate to the sense array, wherein the stylus mode comprises stylus only sensing.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

switch the sense array to a touch mode to detect a presence of the touch object.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the ADC is coupled to the sense array, wherein the first set of sequences comprises different sequences of numerical values than the second set of sequences, and wherein a noise received by the sense array is reduced based on at least one of the first sampling frequency, the second sampling frequency, the first set of sequences, or the second set of sequences.

10. A method comprising:

setting an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to a first sampling frequency, wherein the ADC is coupled to a processing device and a sense array;

receiving a first signal by the processing device from the sense array via the ADC, the sense array comprising a plurality of electrodes, wherein the plurality of electrodes is configured to detect a stylus proximate to the sense array and a touch object proximate to the sense array;

detecting a presence of the stylus based on the first signal and a first set of sequences;

setting the ADC to a second frequency and receiving a second signal when the stylus is detected; and

detecting the presence of the stylus based on the second signal and a second set of sequences.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first signal comprises a first in-phase component and a first quadrature component and wherein the second signal comprises a second in-phase component and a second quadrature component.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

multiplying the first signal by a first demodulation sequence from the first set of sequences to obtain the first in-phase component;

multiplying the second signal by a second demodulation sequence from the second set of sequences to obtain the second in-phase component;

multiplying the first signal by a third demodulation sequence from the first set of sequences to obtain the first quadrature component; and

multiplying the second signal by a fourth demodulation sequence from the second set of sequences to obtain the second quadrature component.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the stylus based on the first signal and the first set of sequences comprises:

calculating a value based on the first in-phase component and the first quadrature component;

determining whether the value is greater than a threshold; and

determine that the stylus is detected when the value is greater than the threshold.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the presence of the stylus based on the second signal and the second set of sequences comprises:

calculating a second value based on the second in-phase component and the second quadrature component;

determining whether the second value is greater than a second threshold; and

determining that the stylus is detected when the second value is greater than second the threshold.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the first demodulation sequence and the third demodulation sequence are orthogonal sequences and wherein the second demodulation sequence and the fourth demodulation sequence are orthogonal sequences.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the first signal is received from a subset of the plurality of electrodes in the sense array and wherein the second signal is received from the plurality of electrodes in the sense array.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a location of the stylus based on the second signal.