Acoustic condition sensor employing a plurality of mutually non-orthogonal waves
First Claim
1. A touch sensor comprising:
- an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface and a touch sensitive portion of said surface;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy into said medium; and
a receiver system for receiving the acoustic energy from the substrate as at least two distinct sets of waves, a portion of each of which overlap temporally at said receiver system or overlap physically by propagating in said touch sensitive portion along axes which are substantially non-orthogonal;
said receiver system determining a position or a waveform perturbing characteristic of a touch on said touch sensitive portion.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A touch sensor comprising an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface; a plurality of acoustic wave path forming systems, each generating a set of incrementally varying paths through said transmissive medium; and a receiver, receiving signals representing said sets of waves, a portion of each set overlapping temporally or physically by propagating in said transmissive medium along axes which are not orthogonal. The waves may also be of differing wave modes. The receiver system may include a phase, waveform or amplitude sensitive system. Reflective arrays are associated with said medium situated along a path, said path not being a linear segment parallel to a coordinate axis of a substrate in a Cartesian space, a segment parallel to an axial axis or perpendicular to a radial axis of a substrate in a cylindrical space nor parallel and adjacent to a side of a rectangular region of a small solid angle section of a sphere; situated along a path substantially not corresponding to a desired coordinate axis of a touch position output signal; situated along a path substantially non-parallel to an edge of said medium; has a spacing of elements in said array which differs, over at least one portion thereof, from an integral multiple of a wavelength of an incident acoustic wave; has elements in said array which are non-parallel; has an angle of acceptance of acoustic waves which varies over regions of said array; and/or coherently scatter at least two distinguishable acoustic waves which are received by said receiving system.
209 Citations
65 Claims
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1. A touch sensor comprising:
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an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface and a touch sensitive portion of said surface;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy into said medium; and
a receiver system for receiving the acoustic energy from the substrate as at least two distinct sets of waves, a portion of each of which overlap temporally at said receiver system or overlap physically by propagating in said touch sensitive portion along axes which are substantially non-orthogonal;
said receiver system determining a position or a waveform perturbing characteristic of a touch on said touch sensitive portion. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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2. The touch sensor according to claim 1, wherein said at least two distinct sets of waves from said touch sensitive surface propagate along different sensing axes.
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44. A touch sensor comprising:
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an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface and a touch sensitive portion of said surface;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy into said substrate; and
a receiver system for receiving acoustic energy from said substrate, said receiver system analyzing a perturbation of said received acoustic energy in waveform sensitive manner. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46)
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47. A touch sensor comprising:
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an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface, an edge, and a touch sensitive portion of said surface medial to said edge;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy onto said touch sensitive portion as waves traveling along a plurality of sets of paths;
a receiver system for receiving acoustic energy from said touch sensitive portion from said plurality of sets of paths, said plurality of sets of paths having at least two components propagating along a path intersecting a respective position along said edge, differing in propagation angle with respect to said edge. - View Dependent Claims (48)
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49. A touch sensor comprising:
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an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface and a touch sensitive portion of said surface;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy into said medium; and
a receiver system for receiving the acoustic energy from the substrate as at least three distinct sets of waves which propagate in the touch sensitive portion;
said receiver determining a position or a waveform perturbing characteristic of a touch on said touch sensitive portion based on said at least three sets of waves.
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50. A control for determining a position of a touch on a surface by means of sets of acoustic waves having incrementally varying paths, portions of at least two of said sets of waves being received simultaneously at an electroacoustic transducer, comprising a phase sensitive circuit, retaining phase information of said portions of at least two of said sets of waves.
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50-1. A control for determining a position of a touch on a surface by means of a set of acoustic waves having incrementally varying paths, receiving signals corresponding to said set of acoustic waves, said control being capable of sensing a perturbing influence by detecting an increase in a signal amplitude.
- 51. A control for determining a position of a touch on a surface by means of sets of acoustic waves having incrementally varying paths, portions of at least two of said sets of waves being perturbed by a touch, comprising a transform processor for producing an output representative of a position along a single axis based on information derived from each of said sets of waves.
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51-2. A substrate for an acoustic touch sensor system comprising:
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an acoustically transmissive medium having a surface with a touch sensitive region having at least one side;
at least two reflective arrays, disposed parallel to one another and on the same side of the touch sensitive region, together having a two dimensional Fourier transform with at least two useful spacing vector components.
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52-3. The substrate according to claim 51, wherein said two useful spacing vector components are for waves scattering at different angles
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53-4. The substrate according to claim 51, wherein said two useful spacing vector components are for waves of differing frequencies.
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58. A touch sensor comprising:
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an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface and a touch sensitive portion of said surface;
a transducer system for emitting acoustic energy into said medium; and
a receiver system for receiving the acoustic energy from the substrate, for determining a perturbation of said acoustic energy due to a touch on said surface, said touch sensor comprising a reflective array having a plurality of spaced elements for scattering portions of an incident acoustic wave as waves having a different propagation vector than said incident wave and passing other portions unscattered, said array being provided an array selected from the group consisting of;
(a) an array associated with said medium situated along a path, said path not being a linear segment parallel to a coordinate axis of a substrate in a Cartesian space, a segment parallel to an axial axis or perpendicular to a radial axis of a substrate in a cylindrical space, nor parallel and adjacent to a side of a rectangular legion of a small solid angle section of a sphere;
(b) an array situated along a path substantially not corresponding to a desired coordinate axis of a touch position output signal;
(c) an array situated along a path substantially non-parallel to an edge of said medium;
(d) an array having a spacing of elements in said array which differs, over at least one portion thereof, from an integral multiple of a wavelength of an incident acoustic wave;
(e) an array having elements in said array which are non-parallel;
(f) an array having an angle of acceptance of acoustic waves which varies over regions of said array;
(g) an array which coherently scatters at least two distinguishable acoustic waves which are received by said receiving system; and
(h) combinations and subcombinations of the above, except that said array in (d), (e) or (f) is not provided parallel and adjacent to a side of a rectangular region of a small solid angle section of a sphere. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65)
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Specification