Pen differentiation for touch displays

• US 11,016,605 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2019
• Issued: 05/25/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FlatFrog Laboratories AB
• Original Assignee: FlatFrog Laboratories AB
• Inventors: Christiansson, Tomas, Jakobson, Kristofer
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Nicholas J
• Application Number:
  US16/654,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20200150822A1
• Time in Patent Office: 587 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 2203/04109 FTIR in optical digitiser, i.e. touch detection by frustrating the total internal reflection within an optical waveguide due to changes of optical properties or deformation at the touch location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• 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

Abstract

An optical IR touch sensing apparatus can determine, based on output signals of light detectors, a light energy value for each light path across a touch surface, and generate a transmission value for each light path based on the light energy value. A processor can operate an image reconstruction algorithm on at least part of the thus-generated transmission values and determine a position of a touching object on the touch surface, an attenuation value corresponding to the attenuation of the light resulting from the object touching the touch surface, and an occlusion compensation value for compensating the occlusion affect from other objects on the touch surface. Using these values, the processor can identify the type of object.

Claims

1. A touch sensing apparatus, comprising:

a touch surface,

a plurality of emitters arranged around a periphery of the touch surface, the plurality of emitters configured to emit beams of light such that one or more objects touching the touch surface cause an attenuation of the light;

a plurality of detectors arranged around the periphery of the touch surface, the plurality of detectors configured to receive light from the plurality of emitters on a plurality of light paths, wherein each detector in the plurality of detectors is arranged to receive light from more than one emitter in the plurality of emitters; and

a hardware processor configured to;

determine, based on output signals generated by the plurality of detectors, a light energy value for each light path of the plurality of light paths;

generate a transmission value for each light path of the plurality of light paths based on the light energy value; and

determine for each object from at least some of the generated transmission values;

a position of the object on the touch surface,

an attenuation value of the object corresponding to the attenuation of the light resulting from the object touching the touch surface, and

an object type of the object in dependence on the attenuation value of the object and attenuation value(s) of other objects on the touch surface.

2. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein other objects on the touch surface are occluding objects and the occlusion compensation value is determined in dependence on the number of occluding objects.

3. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the occlusion compensation value is determined in dependence on the number of occluding objects within a selected distance of the object.

4. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the occlusion compensation value is determined as a function of the size and angle with respect to the object, of the occluding objects.

5. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the size an occluding object is determined as a function of a width, length, and azimuth of the occluding object.

6. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image reconstruction algorithm is an algorithm for transmission tomography.

7. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, the processing element further configured to store a plurality of object IDs, each having an associated attenuation value range.

8. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 7, the processing element further configured to:

determine an occlusion compensated attenuation value for the object in dependence on the attenuation value and the occlusion compensation value; and

identify an object ID with an attenuation value range corresponding to the occlusion compensated attenuation value of the object and associating the object ID with the object.

9. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the identifying step is not performed by the processing element until the attenuation value is determined to be stable.

10. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the attenuation value is determined to be stable when the rate of change of the attenuation value is below a predefined threshold.

11. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the attenuation value is determined to be stable when the rate of change of the attenuation value is determined to rise above a first threshold and then subsequently drop below a second threshold, wherein the second threshold is lower than the first threshold.

12. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 1, the attenuation value is generated in dependence on the attenuation of the light resulting from the object touching the touch surface and a compensation value.

13. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the compensation value is a function of at least the position of the object on the touch surface.

14. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 12, the compensation value being the value at a position on a compensation map corresponding to the position of the object on the touch surface.

15. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the compensation value is a function of at least the speed of the object across the touch surface.

16. The touch sensing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the compensation value is proportional to the speed of the object across the touch surface.

17. A method of determining a type of object in contact with a touch surface of a touch sensing apparatus, said touch sensing apparatus comprising:

a touch surface,

a plurality of emitters, arranged around the periphery of the touch surface, configured to emit beams of light such that one or more objects touching the touch surface cause an attenuation of the light; and

a plurality of detectors, arranged around the periphery of the touch surface, configured to receive light from the plurality of emitters on a plurality of light paths, wherein each detector in the plurality of detectors is arranged to receive light from more than one emitter in the plurality of emitters;

said method comprising the steps of;

determining, based on output signals generated by the plurality of detectors, a light energy value for each light path of the plurality of light paths;

generating a transmission value for each light path of the plurality of light paths based on the light energy value; and

determining for each object from at least some of the generated transmission values;

a position of the object on the touch surface,

an attenuation value of the object corresponding to the attenuation of the light resulting from the object touching the touch surface, and

an object type of the object in dependence on the attenuation value of the object and attenuation value(s) of other objects on the touch surface.