Integrated multi-touch surface having varying sensor granularity

• US 20080309631A1
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hotelling, Steve Porter, Westerman, Wayne Carl, Elias, John Greer, Kerr, Duncan
• Granted Patent: US 9,772,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

This relates to an event sensing device that includes an event sensing panel and is able to dynamically change the granularity of the panel according to present needs. Thus, the granularity of the panel can differ at different times of operation. Furthermore, the granularity of specific areas of the panel can also be dynamically changed, so that different areas feature different granularities at a given time. This also relates to panels that feature different inherent granularities in different portions thereof. These panels can be designed, for example, by placing more stimulus and/or data lines in different portions of the panel, thus ensuring different densities of pixels in the different portions. Optionally, these embodiments can also include the dynamic granularity changing features noted above.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the power of a multi-touch enabled device comprising a multi-touch enabled display, the multi-touch enabled display comprising a plurality of touch pixels placed along the display at a predetermined initial granularity, the method comprising:

selecting a portion of the display which requires a lower level granularity at a predetermined time; and

dynamically reducing the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the selected portion of the display during the predetermined time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the display includes a plurality of data lines connected to respective sensor circuits;

a first set of sensor circuits comprising one or more of the respective sensor circuits is associated with the selected portion of the display; and

the dynamically reducing the granularity further comprises removing power from one or more sensor circuits from the first set of sensor circuits.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the sensor circuits of the first set of sensor circuits remains powered.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the display includes a plurality of stimulus lines;

a first set of stimulus lines comprising one or more of the plurality of stimulus lines is associated with the selected portion of the display;

power is removed from the one or more sensor circuits from the first set of sensor circuits, only when one or more of the first set of stimulus lines is being stimulated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein dynamically reducing the granularity further comprises ensuring that at least one sensor circuit from the first set of sensor circuits is not stimulated at all during the predetermined time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the selected portion of the display encompasses the entire width of the display.

7. The method of claim 1, further including the steps of:

selecting a second portion of the display which requires a lower level granularity at the predetermined time; and

dynamically reducing the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the second portion of the display during the predetermined time.

8. A method of producing a multi-touch enabled device, comprising:

selecting a first region which requires a first level of granularity of touch pixels;

selecting a second region which requires a second level of granularity of touch pixels, the second level being different than that of the first region;

manufacturing a display having the first level of granularity of touch pixels in the first region and the second level of granularity of touch pixels in the second region; and

installing the display in the device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein manufacturing the display further comprises placing a plurality of stimulus and data lines on the display, wherein the stimulus and data lines have a first density in the first region and a second density in the second region, the first density being different than the second density.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of dynamically changing the granularity of pixels in the display during operation of the device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the dynamically changing of the granularity is such that it causes the granularity of the first region to match that of the second region.

12. A multi-touch enabled device, comprising:

a multi-touch display, comprising a plurality of touch pixels;

a CPU connected to the plurality of touch pixels; and

a memory comprising a software executable at the CPU, the software being configured to cause the CPU to

select a portion of the display which requires a lower level granularity at a predetermined time, and

dynamically reduce the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the selected portion of the display during the predetermined time.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the device further includes a device controller and the CPU dynamically reduces the granularity by communicating with the device controller.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the display further comprises:

a plurality of stimulus lines;

a plurality of data lines; and

a plurality of sensor circuits, each sensor circuit being connected to a respective data line, and

the CPU dynamically reduces the granularity of touch pixels by dynamically deactivating one or more sensor circuits from the plurality of sensor circuits, the one or more sensor circuits being associated with the selected portion of the display.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensor circuits are dynamically deactivated only when one or more stimulus lines associated with the selected portion of the display are being stimulated.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the plurality of sensor circuits are connected to the plurality of data lines through a plurality of switches and the switches are configured to, in the event that a sensor circuit connected to the switch is deactivated, connect a data line connected to the switch to another active sensor circuit.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the other active sensor circuit is in proximity to the deactivated sensor circuit.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the CPU dynamically reduces the granularity of touch pixels by dynamically deactivating one or more stimulus lines from the plurality of stimulus lines, the one or more stimulus lines being associated with the selected portion of the display.

19. The device of claim 12, wherein the device is a mobile telephone.

20. The device of claim 12, wherein the device is an audio player.

21. A portable telephone, comprising:

a multi-touch display, comprising a plurality of touch pixels;

a CPU connected to the plurality of touch pixels; and

a memory comprising a software executable at the CPU, the software being configured to cause the CPU to

select a portion of the display which requires a lower level granularity at a predetermined time, and

dynamically reduce the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the selected portion of the display during the predetermined time.

22. An audio player, comprising:

a multi-touch display, comprising a plurality of touch pixels;

a CPU connected to the plurality of touch pixels; and

a memory comprising a software executable at the CPU, the software being configured to cause the CPU to

select a portion of the display which requires a lower level granularity at a predetermined time, and

dynamically reduce the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the selected portion of the display during the predetermined time.

25. The device of claim 22, wherein the device is a mobile telephone.

26. The device of claim 22, wherein the device is an audio player.

23. A multi-touch enabled device, comprising a multi-touch enabled display comprising:

a plurality of touch pixels;

a first region having a first granularity of touch pixels; and

a second region having a second granularity of touch pixels, the second granularity being different than the first one.

24. The multi-touch enabled device of claim 23, wherein the display further comprises a plurality of stimulus lines and a plurality of data lines, an intersection of a stimulus line and a data line defining a pixel, wherein the stimulus lines and the data lines are positioned in a first density in the first region and a second density in the second region, the first density being different than the second one.

27. A mobile telephone, comprising a multi-touch enabled display comprising:

a plurality of touch pixels;

a first region having a first granularity of touch pixels; and

a second region having a second granularity of touch pixels, the second granularity being different than the first one.

28. An audio player comprising a multi-touch enabled display comprising:

a plurality of touch pixels;

a first region having a first granularity of touch pixels; and

a second region having a second granularity of touch pixels, the second granularity being different than the first one.

29. A computer readable medium, comprising computer software instructions, the computer software instructions being executable at a CPU of a multi-touch enabled device having a multi-touch enabled display and being configured to cause the CPU to:

implement a graphical touch based user interface at the multi-touch enabled display;

based on the graphical touch based user interface, select at least one area of the multi-touch enabled display as an area in which a lower touch sensor granularity is acceptable during a predetermined time; and

dynamically reduce the granularity of touch pixels at display hardware level in the selected portion of the display during the predetermined time.

30. A method for controlling the power of an event sensing device comprising an event sensing panel, the event sensing panel comprising a plurality of event sensing pixels placed along the panel at a first granularity, the method comprising:

selecting a portion of the panel which requires a different granularity at a predetermined time, the portion of the panel including the entire panel or any portion thereof; and

dynamically changing the granularity of event sensing pixels at panel hardware level in the selected portion of the panel during the predetermined time.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the event sensing panel includes one or more functionalities selected from the group consisting of:

single-touch sensing, multi-touch sensing, near-field sensing, and far-field sensing.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the event sensing panel is a single-touch sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are touch sensor pixels.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein the event sensing panel is a near-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are near field proximity sensor pixels.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein the event sensing panel is a far-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are far field proximity sensor pixels.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein dynamically changing the granularity includes dynamically increasing the granularity.

36. The method of claim 30, wherein dynamically changing the granularity includes dynamically decreasing the granularity.

37. The method of claim 30, wherein the selecting a portion of the panel which requires a different granularity and dynamically changing the granularity is performed in response to user input.

38. The method of claim 30, wherein the selecting a portion of the panel which requires a different granularity and dynamically changing the granularity is performed in response to commands issued by an operating system of the event sensing device.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the event sensing panel is an event sensing display, and the commands issued by the operating system are based on the positioning of various visual control elements at the event sensing display.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the visual control elements are buttons.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the commands are such that portions of the event sensing display that include visual control elements include event sensing pixels at higher granularity than portions of the event sensing display that do not include visual control elements.

42. The method of claim 30, wherein the selecting a portion of the panel which requires a different granularity and dynamically changing the granularity is performed in response to commands issued by an application running at the event sensing device.

43. A method of producing an event sensing device, comprising:

selecting a first region which requires a first level of granularity of event sensing pixels;

selecting a second region which requires a second level of granularity of event sensing pixels, the second level being different than that of the first region;

manufacturing a panel having the first level of granularity of event sensing pixels in the first region and the second level of granularity of event sensing pixels in the second region; and

installing the panel in the device.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the event sensing device includes one or more functionalities selected from the group consisting of:

multi-touch sensing, near-field sensing, and far-field sensing.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the event sensing device is a near-field proximity sensing device and the event sensing pixels are near field proximity sensor pixels.

46. The method of claim 43 wherein the event sensing device is a far-field proximity sensing device and the event sensing pixels are far field proximity sensor pixels.

47. An event sensing device, comprising:

an event sensing panel, comprising a plurality of event sensing pixels;

a CPU connected to the plurality of event sensing pixels; and

a memory comprising a software executable at the CPU, the software being configured to cause the CPU to

select a portion of the panel which requires a lower level granularity at a predetermined time, and

dynamically reduce the granularity of event sensing pixels at panel hardware level in the selected portion of the panel during the predetermined time.

48. The device of claim 47, wherein the event sensing panel features one or more functionalities selected from the group consisting of:

single-touch sensing, multi-touch sensing, near-field sensing, and far-field sensing.

49. The device of claim 47, wherein the event sensing device is a single-touch sensing device, the event sensing panel is a single-touch sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are touch sensor pixels.

50. The device of claim 47 wherein the event sensing device is a near-field proximity sensing device, the event sensing panel is a near-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are near-field proximity sensor pixels.

51. The device of claim 47 wherein the event sensing device is a far-field proximity sensing device, the event sensing panel is a far-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are far-field proximity sensor pixels.

52. An event sensing device, comprising an event sensing panel comprising:

a plurality of event sensing pixels;

a first region having a first granularity of event sensing pixels; and

a second region having a second granularity of event sensing pixels pixels, the second granularity being different than the first one.

53. The device of claim 52, wherein the event sensing device features one or more functionalities selected from the group consisting of:

multi-touch sensing, near-field sensing, and far-field sensing.

54. The device of claim 52 wherein the event sensing device is a near-field proximity sensing device, the event sensing panel is a near-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are near-field proximity sensor pixels.

55. The device of claim 52 wherein the event sensing device is a far-field proximity sensing device, the event sensing panel is a far-field proximity sensing panel and the event sensing pixels are far-field proximity sensor pixels.