Frequency conversion in a touch sensor

• US 9,710,116 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2015
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tactual Labs Co.
• Original Assignee: Tactual Labs Co.
• Inventors: Sanders, Steven Leonard, Leigh, Darren, Forlines, Clifton, Wigdor, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Sasinowski, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wills-Burns, Chineyere
• Application Number:
  US14/614,295
• Publication Number:
  US 20150301651A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 345174
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13338 Input devices, e.g. touch panels
• 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 2203/04112 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 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• 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 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421
• 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
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means

Abstract

A touch sensitive device includes a touch interface having rows and columns, a signal generator for generating a plurality of unique orthogonal signals on at least a plurality of the rows, respectively, and a frequency converter. The frequency converter receives a first touch signal present on at least one of the plurality of columns, converts the first touch signal to a second signal having a second center frequency, and outputs the second signal. A touch processor is identifies touch on the touch interface by processing the second signal having the second center frequency and outputting touch event data.

Claims

1. A touch sensitive device comprising:

touch interface comprising rows and columns;

signal generator for generating a plurality of unique orthogonal signals on at least a plurality of the rows, respectively, the plurality of unique orthogonal signals being in a first range of frequencies and having a first frequency spacing, and the first range of frequencies having a first center frequency;

frequency converter that;

receives a first touch signal present on at least one of the plurality of columns, the first touch signal comprising signals within the first range of frequencies,

combines the first touch signal with a second signal, and

outputs a lower frequency touch signal, the lower frequency touch signal comprising signals within a second range of frequencies at the first frequency spacing, the second range of frequencies having a center frequency that is lower than the first center frequency;

touch processor for identifying touch on the touch interface by processing the lower frequency touch signal and outputting touch event data.

2. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, wherein the frequency converter and the touch processor are part of the same hardware processor.

3. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, wherein the frequency converter and the touch processor are different hardware processors.

4. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, wherein the orthogonal signals are orthogonal in frequency.

5. The touch sensitive device of claim 4, wherein the lower frequency touch signal has frequency bins which have been aligned by the frequency converter, thereby facilitating processing of the lower frequency touch signal by the touch processor.

6. The touch sensitive device of claim 4, wherein the orthogonal signals have a preselected spacing in frequency, and wherein the frequency converter provides a preselected frequency offset between the first touch signal and the lower frequency touch signal, thereby facilitating processing of the lower frequency touch signal by the touch processor.

7. The touch sensitive device of claim 4, wherein the touch processor comprises a processor configured to perform spectral analysis.

8. The touch sensitive device of claim 7, wherein the touch processor comprises a processor configured to perform spectral analysis using a Fourier transform.

9. The touch sensitive device of claim 8, configured to perform the spectral analysis digitally such that a spectrum of each column is analyzed to determine which and how much of a signal of interest from each row of the touch interface is present on each column of the touch interface.

10. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, wherein the orthogonal signals are orthogonal with respect to at least two selected from the group consisting of:

time, frequency, and code.

11. The touch sensitive device of claim 10, wherein the lower frequency touch signal has frequency bins which have been aligned by the frequency converter, thereby facilitating processing of the lower frequency touch signal by the touch processor.

12. The touch sensitive device of claim 10, wherein the touch processor comprises a processor configured to perform spectral analysis.

13. The touch sensitive device of claim 12, wherein the touch processor comprises a processor configured to perform spectral analysis using a Fourier transform.

14. The touch sensitive device of claim 13, configured to perform the spectral analysis digitally such that a spectrum of each column is analyzed to determine which and how much of a signal of interest from each row of the touch interface is present on each column of the touch interface.

15. The touch sensitive device of claim 10, wherein the touch processor comprises a processor configured to perform cross-correlation using a Fourier transform.

16. The touch sensitive device of claim 15, configured to perform the cross-correlation digitally such that the signal of each column is analyzed to determine which and how much of a signal of interest from each row of the touch interface is present on each column of the touch interface.

17. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, wherein the touch processor further comprises an analog-to-digital converter.

18. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the lower frequency touch signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor.

19. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the lower frequency touch signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor, the touch processor being optimized for the second center frequency to lower power consumption of the analog-to-digital converter.

20. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the lower frequency touch signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor, the touch processor being optimized for the second center frequency to lower circuit-design complexity of the analog-to-digital converter.

21. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, further comprising a sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the lower frequency touch signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor.

22. The touch sensitive device of claim 1, further comprising a continuous time sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the lower frequency touch signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor.

23. A touch sensitive device comprising:

touch interface comprising rows and columns;

signal generator for generating a plurality of unique frequency orthogonal signals on at least a plurality of the rows, respectively, the plurality of unique frequency orthogonal signals being in a first range of frequencies and having a first frequency spacing, and the first range of frequencies having a first center frequency;

frequency converter that;

receives a touch signal present on at least one of the plurality of columns comprising signals within the first range of frequencies,

converts the first touch signal to a second signal being in a second range of frequencies and having the first frequency spacing, the second signal having a second center frequency, and

outputs the second signal having the second center frequency;

touch processor for identifying touch on the touch interface by processing the second signal having the second center frequency and outputting touch event data

wherein the second signal has frequency bins which have been aligned by the frequency converter, thereby facilitating processing of the second signal by the touch processor.

24. The touch sensitive device of claim 23, wherein the second center frequency is lower than the first center frequency.

25. The touch sensitive device of claim 23, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the second signal to a digital signal for processing by the touch processor, the touch processor being optimized for the second center frequency to lower circuit-design complexity of the analog-to-digital converter.

26. A system for pre-processing touch signals from a plurality of columns of a touch surface of a fast multi-touch sensor device, the system comprising:

receiver operatively attached to each of a plurality of columns of a fast multi-touch sensor device and adapted to receive a plurality of source touch signals from each of a plurality of columns, the plurality of source touch signals each comprising signals in a first band of signals having a first frequency spacing, the first band of signals having a first center frequency,

frequency converter to combine each of the received plurality of source touch signal with a mixer signal, and output a plurality of pre-processed touch signals, the plurality of pre-processed touch signals each comprising signals in a second band of signals having the first frequency spacing, the second band of signals having a second center frequency.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein the fast multi-touch sensor device a touch surface having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the plurality of rows and plurality of columns being oriented such that a touch event proximate to the touch surface causes a change in coupling between at least one of the plurality of rows and at least one of the plurality of columns.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the fast multi-touch sensor device further comprises a signal generator operatively connected to at least some of the plurality of rows, the signal generator being adapted to simultaneously generate a plurality of unique frequency orthogonal signals, each of the unique frequency orthogonal signals being within the first band of signals.

29. The system according to claim 26, further comprising:

a plurality of bandpass filters, each of the bandpass filters operatively attached to each of a plurality of columns and adapted to filter respective ones of the plurality of source touch signals prior to the signals being received by the receiver.

30. The system according to claim 29, wherein the plurality of bandpass filters each have a passband, and the passband is selected to pass signals within the first band of signals.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein the plurality of bandpass filters are analog filters.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein each of the received plurality of source touch signal, the mixer signal and the plurality of pre-processed touch signals are all analog signals.

33. The system according to claim 26, wherein the frequency converter is a quadrature frequency mixer.

34. The system according to claim 33, wherein the quadrature frequency mixer comprises:

first and second frequency mixers, wherein

the first frequency mixer combines each of the received plurality of source touch signal with the mixer signal with no phase shift, and outputs a first subset of the plurality of pre-processed touch signals, the first subset of the plurality of pre-processed touch signals representing an in-phase component, and

the second frequency mixer combines each of the received plurality of source touch signal with the mixer signal with a 90 degree phase shift, and outputs a second subset of the plurality of pre-processed touch signals, the second subset of the plurality of pre-processed touch signals representing a quadrature component.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein the second center frequency is zero frequency.

36. The system according to claim 35, further comprising:

digitizer operatively connected to the first and second frequency mixers and adapted to receive receive the in-phase and quadrature components therefrom, and to output digital representations of the in-phase and quadrature components thereof, and

spectral analysis processor operatively connected to the digitizer, and adapted to receive the digital representations of the in-phase and quadrature components, and to perform a Fourier transform on these digital representations.