Touch panel scan control

• US 9,665,217 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2014
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Jalil, Suhail, Rabii, Khosro Mohammad, Ahmed, Mohamed Imtiaz, Pham, Dat Tien
• Primary Examiner(s): Boddie, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): EARLES, BRYAN E
• Application Number:
  US14/263,786
• Publication Number:
  US 20150309610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,128 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041662 using alternate mutual and self-capacitive scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• 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

Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for scan control for scanning a touch panel. The scan control system can alternate adaptively between scanning the touch panel in a passive scan mode requiring minimal power and in a focused active scan mode that sequentially scans only a portion of the touch panel. The scan control system can monitor the absolute capacitance of some or all of the sensors of the touch panel in passive scan mode and can monitor the mutual capacitance of a portion of the touch panel in focused active scan mode. If the absolute capacitance of any sensor is greater than the baseline capacitance, then the scan control can use this absolute capacitance touch data to determine one or more sub-regions of the touch panel for scanning in focused active scan mode. The mutual capacitance touch data can be used for determining features of the touch event.

Claims

1. A touch sensing display system comprising:

a touch panel including;

a plurality of sensors arranged to form a plurality of capacitors,

drive circuitry in data communication with a plurality of output terminals, each of the plurality of output terminals configured to apply voltage to one of the plurality of sensors when activated, and

analog front-end circuitry in data communication with a plurality of input terminals, each of the plurality of input terminals configured to sense electrical signals from one of the plurality of sensors;

a scan control system including

a passive scan module configured to monitor absolute capacitance of the plurality of sensors of the touch panel,

a focused active scan module configured to drive sets of at least some of the plurality of sensors using mutual capacitance scanning at an active scan rate, and

a hover module configured to determine whether data received from the plurality of sensors of the touch panel is consistent with hover touch data and, in response to determining that the data is consistent with the hover touch data, to output an indication to scan the touch panel using the passive scan module,

the scan control system configured to at least generate instructions for a scan of the touch panel by adaptively selecting one of the passive scan module and the focused active scan module to perform the scan of the touch panel, and to generate instructions to scan a reduced subset of the plurality of sensors of the touch panel during at least a portion of the scan, wherein the reduced subset of the plurality of sensors are distributed in a spatially non-uniform density over an area of the touch panel, wherein the spatially non-uniform density includes a first region and a second region, the first region more frequently associated with touch event locations than the second region, the first region having a higher density of the reduced subset than the second region; and

a scanning engine configured to at least configure one or both of the drive circuitry and the analog front-end circuitry to perform the scan according to the instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the passive scan module includes instructions to at least perform a first scan of the touch panel by measuring absolute capacitance of a selected sensor of the plurality of sensors to determine a measured absolute capacitance value.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the passive scan module includes instructions to at least compare the measured absolute capacitance to a baseline absolute capacitance value to generate a difference value.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a memory configured to at least store the baseline absolute capacitance value.

5. The system of claim 3, further comprising a baseline capacitance calibration module including instructions to at least calibrate the baseline capacitance value to generate an updated baseline capacitance value to compensate for effects of a changing environment of the touch panel on baseline absolute capacitance values.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein if the difference value exceeds a threshold, then the scan control system is configured to at least select the focused active scan module to perform a second scan of the touch panel.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the scan control system is configured to at least limit the second scan to a sub-region of the touch panel based at least partly on a location of the selected sensor, wherein the sub-region comprises an area smaller than an area of the touch panel and is likely to contain a touch event.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein, to limit the second scan to the sub-region, the scan control system is configured to provide the instructions to the scanning engine, the instructions including one or more selector signals to configure the drive circuitry to selectively apply voltage to one of the plurality of output terminals corresponding to the selective sensor.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the focused active scan module includes instructions to at least perform the scan of the touch panel by measuring mutual capacitance of at least one of the plurality of capacitors.

10. The system of claim 1, the scan control system further comprising a touch processing module configured to at least analyze touch data resulting from the scan of the touch panel.

11. A method for detecting touch events on a touch panel, the method comprising:

selecting a passive scan mode for a first scan of at least a portion of the touch panel;

based on the selection of the passive scan mode, measuring absolute capacitance of at least one of a plurality of sensors of the touch panel to determine a measured absolute capacitance value;

comparing the measured absolute capacitance to a baseline absolute capacitance value to generate a difference value;

comparing the difference value to a threshold, wherein the difference value exceeding the threshold indicates a possibility of a touch event on the touch panel;

in response to the difference value not exceeding the threshold;

selecting the passive scan mode to perform a second scan of the touch panel;

in response to the difference value exceeding the threshold

selecting a focused active scan mode to perform the second scan of at least a portion of the touch panel,

analyzing data resultant from the second scan to determine whether the data is consistent with hover touch data, and

in response to determining that the data is consistent with the hover touch data, outputting an indication to perform a third scan of the touch panel using the passive scan mode; and

generating instructions to scan a reduced subset of the plurality of sensors of the touch panel during at least a portion of the first scan, the second scan, or the third scan, wherein the reduced subset of the plurality of sensors are distributed in a spatially non-uniform density over an area of the touch panel, wherein the spatially non-uniform density includes a first region and a second region, the first region more frequently associated with touch event locations than the second region, the first region having a higher density of the reduced subset than the second region.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein, if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the second scan, the method further comprises generating mutual capacitance data by measuring mutual capacitance of at least one of a plurality of capacitors, each of the plurality of capacitors formed by intersection of two of the plurality of sensors.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining features of the touch event based at least partly on the mutual capacitance data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the features include one or more of size, shape, location, movement, and gesture of the touch event.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the features indicate that the touch event is a false touch event, wherein the false touch event corresponds to noise due to a changing environment of the touch panel.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising calibrating the baseline capacitance to generate an updated baseline capacitance value to compensate for effects of the changing environment of the touch panel on baseline absolute capacitance values.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising measuring absolute capacitance of at least one of the plurality of sensors to determine a second measured absolute capacitance value.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising comparing the second measured absolute capacitance to the updated baseline absolute capacitance value to generate a second difference value.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein, if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the second scan, the method further comprises identifying a sub-region comprising an area smaller than an area of the touch panel and is likely to contain a touch event.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein identifying the sub-region is based at least partly on a location of the at least one of the plurality of sensors corresponding to the difference value determined to exceed the threshold.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein, if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the second scan, the method further comprises reducing a resolution of the touch panel for the second scan.

22. Non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more physical computing devices, cause operations comprising:

measuring absolute capacitance of at least one of a plurality of sensors of the touch panel to determine a measured absolute capacitance value;

comparing the measured absolute capacitance to a baseline absolute capacitance value to generate a difference value;

comparing the difference value to a threshold, wherein the difference value exceeding the threshold indicates a possibility of a touch event on the touch panel;

in response to the difference value not exceeding the threshold;

selecting a passive scan mode to perform a scan of the touch panel;

in response to the difference value exceeding the threshold

selecting a focused active scan mode to perform the scan of at least a portion of the touch panel,

analyzing data resultant from the second scan to determine whether the data is consistent with hover touch data, and

in response to determining that the data is consistent with the hover touch data, outputting an indication to perform an additional scan of the touch panel using the passive scan mode; and

generating instructions to scan a reduced subset of the plurality of sensors of the touch panel during at least a portion of the scan or the additional scan, wherein the reduced subset of the plurality of sensors are distributed in a spatially non-uniform density over an area of the touch panel, wherein the spatially non-uniform density includes a first region and a second region, the first region more frequently associated with touch event locations than the second region, the first region having a higher density of the reduced subset than the second region.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, the operations further comprising calibrating the baseline capacitance value to generate an updated baseline capacitance value to compensate for effects of a changing environment of the touch panel on baseline absolute capacitance values.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the scan, the operations further comprise generating mutual capacitance data by measuring mutual capacitance of at least one of a plurality of capacitors formed one or more of the plurality of sensors.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the scan, the operations further comprise identifying a sub-region to which the scan is limited, the sub-region comprising an area smaller than an area of the touch panel likely to contain a touch event.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein if focused active scan mode is selected to perform the scan, the operations further comprise reducing a resolution of the touch panel for the scan.

27. A touch panel display apparatus comprising:

means for measuring absolute capacitance of at least one of a plurality of sensors of a touch panel to determine a measured absolute capacitance value;

means for comparing the measured absolute capacitance to a baseline absolute capacitance value to generate a difference value;

means for comparing the difference value to a threshold, wherein the difference value exceeding the threshold indicates a possibility of a touch event on the touch panel;

means for selecting, based at least partly on a result of comparing the difference value to the threshold, one of a focused active scan mode and a passive scan mode to perform a scan of at least a portion of the touch panel;

means for determining whether data resultant from the scan is consistent with hover touch data, and, in response to determining that the data is consistent with the hover touch data, outputting an indication to perform an additional scan of the touch panel using the passive scan mode; and

generating instructions to scan a reduced subset of the plurality of sensors of the touch panel during at least a portion of the scan or the additional scan, wherein the reduced subset of the plurality of sensors are distributed in a spatially non-uniform density over an area of the touch panel, wherein the spatially non-uniform density includes a first region and a second region, the first region more frequently associated with touch event locations than the second region, the first region having a higher density of the reduced subset than the second region.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising means for determining scanning parameters including one or both of scan rate and scan resolution.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising means for limiting the focused active scan to a sub-region of the touch panel comprising an area smaller than an area of the touch panel.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising means for calibrating the baseline absolute capacitance value.