System and method for detecting grip of a touch enabled device

• US 10,296,146 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Winebrand, Amil, Orlovsky, Michael, Greenboim, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): Jansen, II, Michael J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cohen, Yaron
• Application Number:
  US14/977,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20170177110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• 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 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• 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

A device includes a display, a controller configured to control the display, a sensor integrated with the display and a circuit a circuit in communication with the sensor. The sensor is configured to sense touch input and the circuit is configured to detect when a user is gripping the device only based on output from the sensor and a pre-defined model. Gripping is reported to the controller.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a front face and a back face, the back face opposite the front face;

a display on the front face of the device;

a controller configured to control the display;

a grid based capacitive sensor integrated with the display, wherein the sensor is configured to sense touch input on the display; and

a circuit in communication with the sensor, the circuit configured to;

perform mutual capacitive detection based on scanning one axis of the grid based capacitive sensor;

detect a heatmap based on the mutual capacitive detection;

identify a thumb or palm on a pre-defined portion of the display based on the heatmap;

detect capacitance (C_BD) between the user and the device based on the heatmap;

identify that a user is touching the back face of the device based on accumulated averages of the C_BD being above a pre-defined threshold, wherein the accumulated averages are accumulated over a plurality of refresh cycles of the sensor including refresh cycles during which the thumb or palm is on the pre-defined portion of the display;

detect that the user is gripping the device based on identifying the thumb or palm on the pre-defined portion of the display and based on detecting when the user is touching the back face of the device; and

report the gripping detected to the controller.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the C_BD is detected based on a number of touched junctions in the heatmap and amplitude of touch junctions in the heatmap.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined portion of the sensor is along at least one edge of the display.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined portion of the sensor is dynamically adjusted based on an orientation of the display.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the report is input to an application running on the device or to a graphical processing unit of the device.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the C_BD is also detected based on pre-defined constants, wherein the pre-defined constants are related to physical properties of the grid based capacitive sensor and are defined based on empirical data.

7. A method comprising:

performing mutual capacitive detection based on scanning one axis of a grid based capacitive sensor integrated with a display of a device, wherein the display occupies at least a portion of a first surface of the device, wherein the first surface is opposite a second surface of the device, and wherein the sensor is configured to sense touch input on the display;

detecting when the user is touching a pre-defined portion of the display with a thumb or palm based on a heatmap determined from the mutual capacitive detection;

detecting capacitance (C_BD) between the user and the device based on the heatmap;

detecting when the user is touching the second surface of the device based on accumulated averages of the C_BD being above a pre-defined threshold, wherein the accumulated averages are accumulated over a plurality of refresh cycles of the sensor including refresh cycles during which the thumb or palm is on the pre-defined portion of the display;

detecting that the user is gripping the device based on identifying the thumb or palm on the pre-defined portion of the display and based on detecting when the user is touching the back face of the device; and

reporting the gripping detected to a controller of the device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the C_BD is detected based on a number of touched junctions in the heatmap and amplitude of touch junctions in the heatmap.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the pre-defined portion of the sensor is along at least one edge of the display.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the pre-defined portion of the sensor is dynamically adjusted based on an orientation of the display.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the report is input to an application running on the device or to a graphical processing unit of the device.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the pre-defined threshold is 250 pF.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the C_BD is also detected based on pre-defined constants, wherein the pre-defined constants are related to physical properties of the grid based capacitive sensor and are defined based on empirical data.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the C_BD is also detected based on spatial spread of a touched area on the heatmap.