Labeling touch regions of a display device

• US 9,182,848 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2014
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Oh, Seung-Seok
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Gene W
• Application Number:
  US14/471,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20140362021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 439 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-183, 178 1801- 1811, 178 1901- 1907, 178 2001- 2004, 715/863
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• 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

The embodiments herein relate to a method and device for labeling a touch region, in which adjacent raw data are labeled in groups for reducing a labeling time period as well as a memory size for storing the labeled data.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an array of touch sensors configured to receive touch inputs applied thereto, said array of touch sensors comprising a plurality of scan lines with first sensing electrodes and a plurality of readout lines having second sensing electrodes, said first and second sensing electrodes having diamond shapes; and

a controller operatively connected with said array of touch sensors to process said touch inputs based upon periodic scanning of analog data that represents information about touch coordinates and number of touches, wherein said scanning refers to a process of retrieving and identifying corresponding digital values associated with said analog data,

said touch inputs being further processed via said controller, when a plurality of touch inputs are received at once on multiple locations via said array of touch sensors, by grouping said plurality of touch inputs into at least one touch region instead of processing each of said plurality of touch inputs separately, with said grouping performed by said controller during a single scanning of said analog data;

wherein the controller processes and groups the plurality of touch inputs by;

identifying a first touch input from the plurality of touch inputs, the first touch input unassigned to a touch region;

identifying a second touch input from the plurality of touch inputs, the second touch input adjacent to the first touch input and assigned to a first touch region that is associated with a first value;

identifying a third touch input from the plurality of touch inputs, the third touch input adjacent to the first touch input and assigned to a second touch region that is different from the first touch region, the second touch region associated with a second value that is greater than the first value of the first touch region;

determining that the first touch input, the second touch input, and the third touch input are associated with the first touch region, the determination based on the second touch input and the third touch input both being adjacent to the first touch input but assigned to different touch regions and the first value of the first touch region being less than the second value of the second touch region; and

assigning the first touch input to the first touch region based on the determination.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the controller further reassigns the third touch input from the second touch region to the first touch region based on the third touch input being adjacent to the first touch input that is assigned to the first touch region that is associated with the first value that is less than the second value of the second touch region.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said array of touch sensors is implemented as an on-cell type or an in-cell type.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

a display panel, operatively connected with said array of touch sensors and said controller, configured to output visual information;

a data driver, operatively connected with said display panel, configured to supply data driving signals;

a gate driver, operatively connected with said display panel, configured to supply gate driving signals; and

a timing controller, operatively connected with said display panel, configured to supply timing control signals.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said array of touch sensors support touch sensing techniques based on at least one among resistive, capacitive, and electro-magnetic technologies.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the touch sensing techniques are implemented in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the touch sensing techniques are implemented in an organic light emitting diode (OLED) device.