Noise reduction in electronic device with touch sensitive surface

• US 9,046,959 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2011
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elo Touch Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Elo Touch Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Schevin, Olivier, Esteve, Simon, Duheille, Remi
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Prabodh M
• Application Number:
  US13/521,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20130027359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 178 1801- 1806, 178 1901- 1906, 340/425.5, 340/568.1, 715/811, 382/224, 381/71.6, 381/72, 381/114, 381/109
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/83 input devices, e.g. keyboards, mice or controllers thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04182 Filtering of noise external to the device and not generated by digitiser components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0433 in which the acoustic waves are either generated by a movable member and propagated within a surface layer or propagated within a surface layer and captured by a movable member

Abstract

The invention relates to an electronic device with a touch sensitive surface comprising: a sensing means for capturing an acoustic signal, a touch location determining unit configured to determine the location of a touch event on the touch sensitive surface based on the acoustic signal. To improve the reliability of the touch localization process, the device further comprises a filtering unit configured to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the acoustic signal based on one or more signals provided by one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device and/or based on one or more parameters of the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device. The invention also relates to a corresponding method. The invention furthermore relates to a method for improving the confidentiality of a user input.

Claims

1. Electronic device with a touch sensitive surface comprising:

a sensing means for capturing an acoustic signal

a touch location determining unit configured to determine the location of a touch event on the touch sensitive surface based on the acoustic signal, characterized in further comprising

a filtering unit configured to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the acoustic signal based on one or more reference signals provided by one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device and/or based on one or more parameters of the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device, wherein the reference signal comprises a control signal used to cause the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices to form a spurious acoustic signal, wherein the control signal causes a change in at least one property of the spurious acoustic signal output by the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices, and the wherein the filtering unit is further configured to use the at least one property to determine at least a portion of the spurious acoustic signal to remove from the acoustic signal.

2. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the spurious acoustic signal generating device or one of the spurious acoustic signal generating devices is configured to provide a spurious acoustic signal such that the sensed acoustic signal comprises a contribution due to the touch event and the spurious acoustic signal wherein the ratio of the contribution due to the touch event to the spurious acoustic signal is less than or equal to 1.

3. Electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the spurious acoustic signal generating device comprises a signal encrypting means to encrypt the reference signal and the filtering unit comprises a decrypting means to decrypt the reference signal.

4. Electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the sensing means comprises a sensed signal encrypting means to encrypt the sensed signal and the filtering unit comprises a decrypting means to decrypt the reference signal.

5. Electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the spurious acoustic signal is a noise signal, in particular white noise.

6. Electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the spurious acoustic signal is inaudible.

7. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the filtering unit comprises an adaptive filtering unit.

8. Electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a switching means configured to switch between the reference signals and/or parameters provided by the spurious acoustic signal generating devices to provide one signal to the filtering unit.

9. Electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a summing means configured to sum up at least two of the reference signals of the spurious acoustic signal generating devices and/or parameters.

10. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more parameter is at least one of frequency range and associated amplitude.

11. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating device is at least one of a loudspeaker, a microphone, a vibrating device, an accelerometer, a hard disk drive, a ventilator, power supply and an electronic component.

12. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is at least one of a mobile phone, a computer, a game console, an electronic book reader, a MP3 player, a video player, a HiFi player, an automatic teller machine, an access control system, a vending machine and a navigation device.

13. Electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a handheld device.

14. Integrated chip set comprising a filtering unit and a touch localisation unit for use in the electronic device according to claim 1.

15. Method for improving the signal-to-noise ratio of an acoustic signal used in an electronic device to determine the location of a touch event, on a touch sensitive surface, comprising the steps of:

a. capturing an acoustic signal,

b. determining the location of a touch event, in particular a tap or a sliding action, on the touch sensitive surface based on the captured acoustic signal, and

c. providing prior to step b one or more reference signals of spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device and/or one or more parameters of the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the acoustic signal, wherein the reference signal comprises a control signal used to cause the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices to form a spurious acoustic signal, and wherein the control signal causes a change in at least one property of the spurious acoustic signal output by the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices; and

d. using the at least one property to determine at least a portion of the spurious acoustic signal to remove from the acoustic signal.

16. Method according to claim 15, wherein step c comprises providing a noise reference signal using one or more signals of the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device and/or using one or more of the one or more parameters of the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices of the electronic device and inputting the noise reference signal into a reference input of an adaptive filtering unit to reduce the noise contribution to the captured acoustic signal.

17. Method according to claim 15, wherein step c further comprises using only one signal or parameter using a switching means.

18. Method according to claim 15, wherein step c further comprises summing up at least two of the signals and/or parameters to form the reference signal.

19. Method for improving the confidentiality of a user'"'"'s touch based input to an electronic device comprising a touch sensitive surface with the steps of:

a. providing a spurious acoustic signal in and/or around the touch sensitive surface,

b. sensing an acoustic signal with a sensing means, the sensed acoustic signal comprising a contribution due to a touch event provided by the user on the touch sensitive surface and a contribution due to the spurious acoustic signal, wherein the ratio of the contribution due to the touch event to the spurious acoustic signal is lower or equal to 1,

c. filtering the sensed acoustic signal based on a reference signal representative of the spurious acoustic signal thereby reducing the contribution of the spurious acoustic signal, wherein the reference signal comprises a control signal used to cause one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices to form a spurious acoustic signal, wherein the control signal causes a change in at least one property of the spurious acoustic signal output by the one or more spurious acoustic signal generating devices, and wherein the filtering is performed based at least in part by using the at least one property to determine at least a portion of the spurious acoustic signal from the sensed acoustic signal, and

d. determining the location of the touch event based on the filtered sensed acoustic signal.

20. Method according to claim 19, wherein the reference signal is provided by the spurious acoustic signal providing means to the filtering unit.

21. Method according to claim 19, wherein the reference signal is encrypted by the spurious acoustic signal providing means and/or the sensed acoustic signal is encrypted by sensing means and the reference signal and/or the sensed acoustic signal is/are decrypted by the filtering unit.

22. Method according to claim 19, wherein the spurious acoustic signal is white noise.

23. Method according to claim 19, wherein the spurious acoustic signal is inaudible.

24. Method according to claim 19, further comprising a step e) before or after step c) of providing at least one second reference signal of an at least one second spurious acoustic signal generating device of the electronic device and/or one or more parameters of the at least one second spurious acoustic signal generating device to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensed acoustic signal or the filtered sensed signal.