Multi-touch pad controller
First Claim
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1. A sensor system for sensing touch events on a surface associated with the sensor system, comprising:
- piezoresistive fabric;
a plurality of sensors arranged in an array, each sensor comprising a pair of conductive traces facing or in contact with the same side of the piezoresistive fabric, the pair of conductive traces for each sensor forming part of a corresponding divider circuit with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric, each divider circuit being configured to generate a corresponding sensor signal in response to a corresponding drive signal applied via one of the conductive traces in the pair of conductive traces and one or more of the touch events on the surface of the sensor system near the pair of conductive traces; and
sensor circuitry configured to provide the drive signals selectively to the sensors, to receive the corresponding sensor signals, and to generate control information from the sensor signals, the control information representing a location and a force for each of the touch events relative to the surface of the sensor system.
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Abstract
A highly configurable controller is described that includes a number of different types of control mechanisms that emulate a wide variety of conventional control mechanisms using pressure and location sensitive sensors that generate high-density control information which may be mapped to the controls of a wide variety of devices and software.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A sensor system for sensing touch events on a surface associated with the sensor system, comprising:
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piezoresistive fabric; a plurality of sensors arranged in an array, each sensor comprising a pair of conductive traces facing or in contact with the same side of the piezoresistive fabric, the pair of conductive traces for each sensor forming part of a corresponding divider circuit with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric, each divider circuit being configured to generate a corresponding sensor signal in response to a corresponding drive signal applied via one of the conductive traces in the pair of conductive traces and one or more of the touch events on the surface of the sensor system near the pair of conductive traces; and sensor circuitry configured to provide the drive signals selectively to the sensors, to receive the corresponding sensor signals, and to generate control information from the sensor signals, the control information representing a location and a force for each of the touch events relative to the surface of the sensor system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for generating control information representing touch events on a surface associated with a sensor system, the sensor comprising a piezoresistive fabric and a plurality of sensors arranged in an array, each sensor comprising a pair of conductive traces facing or in contact with the same side of the piezoresistive fabric, the pair of conductive traces for each sensor forming part of a corresponding divider circuit with a corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of sensor signals from the array of sensors with an analog-to-digital converter, each sensor signal being generated by one of the divider circuits and representing interaction of the corresponding portion of the piezoresistive fabric and the corresponding pair of conductive traces resulting from one or more of the touch events; digitizing the sensor signals using the analog-to-digital converter; and generating the control information from the digitized sensor signals using one or more processors, the control information representing a location and a force for each of the touch events relative to the surface of the sensor system. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification