Touch input surface speaker

• US 9,823,760 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2015
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sentons, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sentons, Inc.
• Inventors: Sheng, Samuel W., Shih, Shih-Ming, Lynn, Lapoe E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Okebato, Sahlu
• Application Number:
  US14/731,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20150268753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 901 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04103 Manufacturing, i.e. details related to manufacturing processes specially suited for touch sensitive devices
• 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0436 in which generating transducers and detecting transducers are attached to a single acoustic waves transmission substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/00 Details of transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 17/00 Piezoelectric transducers; Electrostrictive transducers piezoelectric or electrostrictive elements in general H10N30/00; details of piezoelectric or electrostrictive motors, generators or positioners H10N30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/00 Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 7/045 using the distributed mode principle, i.e. whereby the acoustic radiation is emanated from uniformly distributed free bending wave vibration induced in a stiff panel and not from pistonic motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 9/066 using the principle of inertia

Abstract

A source audio signal to be rendered by a touch input medium is received. A transmitted signal to be propagated through the touch input medium is sent. The transmitted signal includes the source audio signal and a touch location detection signal. An event is indicated, where the touch input medium has been contacted at a location on the touch input medium by a touch contact such that rendering of the source audio signal by the touch input medium is affected by the touch contact. The location of the touch contact on the touch input medium is determined by analyzing a disturbance by the touch contact on the rendered touch location detection signal. At least a portion of the source audio signal is modified based on an expected effect of the contact on the touch input medium determined using the indication of the detector.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a receiver interface configured to receive a source audio signal to be rendered by a touch input medium as a sound outputted by a speaker;

a transmitter interface configured to send a transmitted signal to be propagated through the touch input medium, wherein the transmitted signal includes the source audio signal and a touch location detection signal;

a detector configured to indicate an event where the touch input medium has been contacted at a location on the touch input medium by a touch contact such that rendering of the source audio signal by the touch input medium is affected by the touch contact; and

a signal processor configured to determine the location of the touch contact on the touch input medium by analyzing a disturbance by the touch contact on the rendered touch location detection signal and, based on an expected effect of the touch contact on the touch input medium determined using the indication of the detector, modify at least a portion of the source audio signal to be rendered as the sound outputted by the speaker to at least in part reduce the expected effect of the touch contact on rendering of the sound outputted by the speaker.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the touch location detection signal is an ultrasonic signal that includes a binary signal content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein rendering the transmitted signal includes freely propagating the transmitted signal through the touch input medium.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the touch contact includes correlating a disturbed version of the rendered touch location detection signal disturbed by the touch contact with a reference signal.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor interface configured to receive a detected audio signal from a sensor coupled to the touch input medium.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the sensor includes a piezoelectric transducer.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the detected audio signal includes at least a portion of the source audio signal that has been rendered by the touch input medium and distorted by the touch contact.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the detected audio signal includes at least a portion of the touch input location signal that has been disturbed by the touch contact.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the detected audio signal is filtered or equalized to remove signal frequencies associated with the touch input location signal.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the expected effect of the contact is determined at least in part by comparing the source audio signal with the detected audio signal.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein comparing the source audio signal with the detected audio signal includes subtracting the detected audio signal from the source audio signal.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein modifying at least a portion of the source audio signal includes modifying the source audio signal using a result of the comparison.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensor interface configured to receive a plurality of detected audio signals from a plurality of sensors coupled to the touch input medium.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the expected effect of the contact is determined at least in part by determining a representative detected signal using the plurality of detected audio signals.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein determining the representative detected signal includes selecting a detected audio signal among the plurality of detected audio signals using the indication of the detector.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein using the indication of the detector to select the signal includes determining a physical distance between the contact location and a location of a sensor that detected the detected audio signal.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of the source audio signal includes modifying the source audio signal to compensate for the expected effect of the contact.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the expected effect of the contact is determined at least in part by using the indication of the detector to locate one or more predetermined factors stored in a data structure and used to determine the expected effect.

19. A method, comprising:

receiving a source audio signal to be rendered by a touch input medium as a sound outputted by a speaker;

sending a transmitted signal to be propagated through the touch input medium, wherein the transmitted signal includes the source audio signal and a touch location detection signal;

indicating an event where the touch input medium has been contacted at a location on the touch input medium by a touch contact such that rendering of the source audio signal by the touch input medium is affected by the touch contact;

using a processor to determine the location of the touch contact on the touch input medium by analyzing a disturbance by the touch contact on the rendered touch location detection signal; and

based on an expected effect of the touch contact on the touch input medium determined using the indication of the detector, modifying at least a portion of the source audio signal to be rendered as the sound outputted by the speaker to at least in part reduce the expected effect of the touch contact on rendering of the sound outputted by the speaker.

20. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving a source audio signal to be rendered by a touch input medium as a sound outputted by a speaker;

sending a transmitted signal to be propagated through the touch input medium, wherein the transmitted signal includes the source audio signal and a touch location detection signal;

indicating an event where the touch input medium has been contacted at a location on the touch input medium by a touch contact such that rendering of the source audio signal by the touch input medium is affected by the touch contact;

determining the location of the touch contact on the touch input medium by analyzing a disturbance by the touch contact on the rendered touch location detection signal; and

based on an expected effect of the touch contact on the touch input medium determined using the indication of the detector, modifying at least a portion of the source audio signal to be rendered as the sound outputted by the speaker to at least in part reduce the expected effect of the touch contact on rendering of the sound outputted by the speaker.