Fast multi-touch post processing

• US 9,529,476 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tactual Labs Co.
• Original Assignee: Tactual Labs Co.
• Inventors: Leigh, Darren
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Jr., Kenneth B
• Application Number:
  US14/881,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20160041691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 441 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 2203/04109 FTIR in optical digitiser, i.e. touch detection by frustrating the total internal reflection within an optical waveguide due to changes of optical properties or deformation at the touch location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04112 Electrode mesh in capacitive digitiser: electrode for touch sensing is formed of a mesh of very fine, normally metallic, interconnected lines that are almost invisible to see. This provides a quite large but transparent electrode surface, without need for ITO or similar transparent conductive material
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• 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

In a low-latency touch-sensitive device, post-processing is performed to convert a two-dimensional map of signal strengths into usable touch events. Four such post-processing procedures are disclosed: field flattening, touch point detection, interpolation and touch point matching between frames. The field flattening procedure subtracts an offset to remove crosstalk between rows and columns, and compensates for differences in amplitude between particular row/column combinations due to attenuation. The touch point detection procedure computes coarse touch points by finding local maxima in the flattened signal. The interpolation procedure computes fine touch points from the coarse touch points. In an embodiment, such interpolation is done by fitting the coarse touch points to a paraboloid. The frame matching procedure matches the calculated touch points to each other across frames.

Claims

1. A low-latency touch sensitive device, comprising:

first and second pluralities of conductors, arranged such that each of the paths of the conductors of the first plurality of conductors cross each of the paths of the conductors of the second plurality of conductors;

at least one signal processor adapted to process signals present on each of the second plurality of conductors, and for each of the signals present on each of the second plurality of conductors to determine which signals represent touches, the at least one signal processor being adapted to convert a two-dimensional map representing signal strengths into usable touch events by applying;

a field flattening procedure that subtracts an offset level to remove crosstalk between rows and columns and compensates for differences in amplitude between particular row/column combinations due to attenuation, thereby creating a field-flattened signal;

a touch point detection procedure that computes coarse touch points by finding local maxima in the field-flattened signal;

an interpolation procedure that computes fine touch points from the coarse touch points; and

,

a frame matching procedure that matches calculated touch points to each other across frames.

2. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to compensate for differences in amplitude between row/column combinations by multiplying each of a plurality of locations in the two-dimensional map by a calibration constant for the particular row/column combination.

3. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply a field flattening procedure that measures signal strength for each row signal at each of a plurality of column receivers and uses a measured value from a particular column receiver as the offset level that is subtracted from the two-dimensional map at a position of the particular column receiver.

4. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is further adapted to apply a field flattening procedure that compensates for differences in amplitude between particular row/column combinations by normalizing touch events to a measured value at a location on a touch surface of the touch sensitive device.

5. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 4, wherein the location comprises a row/column intersection in close proximity to transmitters and receivers.

6. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply a touch point detection procedure that compares signal strength at each of a plurality of locations of the two-dimensional map to a plurality of its neighbors and labels a location as a local maximum if it is greater than each of them and above a given threshold.

7. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply an interpolation procedure that models capacitive contact of a distributed touch as a second-order function in two dimensions.

8. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply an interpolation procedure that fits data associated with the coarse touch points to a paraboloid.

9. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 8, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply an interpolation procedure that uses a Vandermonde-like matrix to solve for coefficients of a polynomial describing the paraboloid.

10. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 9, wherein the Vandermonde-like matrix is square, having a number of columns that is equal to its number of rows.

11. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 9, wherein the Vandermonde-like matrix is non-square, having a number of columns that is not equal to its number of rows and is overdetermined.

12. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 8, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply an interpolation procedure that uses a least squares technique.

13. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 9, wherein the polynomial describing the paraboloid is:

Ax²+Cy²+Dx+Ey+F=z

14. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 9, wherein the polynomial describing the paraboloid is:

Ax²+Bxy+Cy²+Dx+Ey+F=z

15. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply a frame matching procedure that matches a calculated touch point in a first frame to a calculated touch point in a second frame based at least in part on a size of the touch point in the first frame and a size of the touch point in the second frame.

16. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one signal processor is adapted to apply a frame matching procedure that matches a calculated touch point in a first frame to a calculated touch point in a second frame based at least in part on at least one change in distance between a location of the touch point in the first frame and a location of the touch point in the second frame.

17. The low-latency touch sensitive device according to claim 16, wherein the frame matching procedure matches the calculated touch point in the first frame to the calculated touch point in the second frame based at least in part on a velocity vector of the calculated touch point in the first frame and the location of the calculated touch point in the second frame.

18. A method for determining one or more touch locations of one or more capacitive objects on a touch sensitive device, the touch sensitive device comprising at least one receiving wire connected to a receiver and a plurality of transmitting wires connected to a signal transmitter, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a heat map comprising a row for each transmitting wire and a column for each of the at least one receiving wires, and thus, comprising an element for each row/column intersection;

identifying the amount of each of the signals present on the at least one receiving wire;

populating each heat map elements with a value reflecting the amount of the signal coupled at each corresponding intersection;

locating the one or more local maxima in the heat map;

fitting the heat map data surrounding each local maxima to a model function, the model function having a maximum; and

for each fitting to a model function, computing the maximum of the model function and thus one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

compensating the heat map prior to the step of locating.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of compensating comprises:

creating a compensation map having values substantially corresponding to the differences in amplitude of the signal between the signal transmitter and the receiver when each transmitting wire is coupled with each of the at least one receiving wires; and

compensating the heat map using the compensation map.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of compensating comprises:

creating a compensation function capable of estimating the differences in amplitude of the signal between the signal transmitter and the receiver when each transmitting wire is coupled with each of the at least one receiving wires; and

compensating the heat map using the compensation function.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

determining an offset level; and

compensating the heat map using the offset level.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of compensating the heat map using the offset level comprises subtracting the offset level from each element of the heat map.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of compensating comprises:

creating an offset level map having values substantially corresponding to the amount of crosstalk present at each intersection absent the presence of a capacitive object in proximity to one or more of the intersections; and

compensating the heat map using the offset level map.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of compensating the heat map using the offset level map comprises subtracting from each element of the heat map the corresponding values from the offset level map.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein the model function is a paraboloid.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the model function is a paraboloid.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the model function is a paraboloid.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the model function is a paraboloid.

30. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

storing, in a temporary storage, data representing each touch location on the touch sensitive device, the data comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of;

position, size, and rotational orientation.

31. A method for tracking one or more touch locations of one or more capacitive objects on a touch sensitive device, the touch sensitive device comprising at least one receiving wire connected to a receiver and a plurality of transmitting wires connected to a signal transmitter, the method comprising the steps of:

i) creating an array comprising a row for each transmitting wire and a column for each of the at least one receiving wires, and thus, comprising an element for each row/column intersection;

ii) creating a frame by;

(1) identifying the amount of each of the signals present on the at least one receiving wire;

(2) populating each element of the array with a value reflecting the amount of the signal coupled at each corresponding intersection;

iii) processing the frame by;

(1) locating the one or more local maxima in the array;

(2) fitting the array data surrounding each local maximum to a model function, the model function having a maximum;

iv) identifying in the frame one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device by;

(1) for each fitting to a model function, computing the maximum of the model function and thus one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device;

v) storing, in a temporary storage, data corresponding to the frame and at least one of the one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device identified in the frame;

vi) frame matching, using the data in temporary storage, thereby correlating at least one of the one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device identified in one frame with at least one of the one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device identified in another frame; and

,

vii) outputting the one or more touch locations and information concerning the correlation.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the data corresponding to the frame and at least one of the one or more touch locations on the touch sensitive device identified in the frame comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of:

the frame;

the processed frame;

coordinates corresponding to at least one of the one or more touch locations;

a size corresponding to at least one of the one or more touch locations; and

a rotational orientation corresponding to at least one of the one or more touch locations.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of creating a frame occurs at a rate of at least 100 Hz.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of creating a frame occurs at a rate of at least about 1,000 Hz.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein data from at least two frames is used to compute at least one time-based indicator selected from the group consisting of:

a distance between one of the one or more touch locations in each of the at least two frames;

a rate of speed corresponding to one of the one or more touch locations in each of the at least two frames; and

a rotational velocity corresponding to one of the one or more touch locations in each of the at least two frames.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the at least one time-based indicator is used in connection with the step of frame matching in a subsequent iteration.

37. The method of claim 31, where the information concerning the correlation comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of rotational orientation, rotational velocity, and rotational acceleration.