Multi-Touch Input Platform

• US 20090284479A1
• Filed: 05/16/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Scott, Bryan D., Dennis, Stephen V., Townsend, Reed L., Torset, Todd A., Tu, Xiao
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• 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 2203/04808 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

This document describes tools having or interacting with a touch-sensitive device with one or more contact detectors that detect a tactile input from a user making contact with the contact detectors and an input/output module that persistently identifies contact data representing the detected tactile input. This identification is unique, thereby differentiating one or more tactile inputs from other current tactile inputs represented in the contact data. Using this unique identification, the input/output module can initiate an application to provide a function, such as data entry or a mapped function, associated with the detected tactile input. These data or mapped functions may, in many instances, provide a greater depth or breadth of functions by which users may interact with applications and computer systems.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

converting contact detector output into contact data that represents a first tactile input and a second tactile input detected by a touch-sensitive device that includes one or more contact detectors;

identifying, with a unique identification, first contact data of said contact data, said first contact data representing the first tactile input and said unique identification effective to differentiate said first contact data representing the first tactile input from second contact data representing the second tactile input; and

initiating, based on said first contact data, an application to provide a function associated with the first tactile input.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether to initiate at least one of a mapped function or raw data entry based on the application providing the function.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising passing to the application the unique identification as an argument to a notification, wherein the unique identification is a cursor identification.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the act of converting converts contact detector output into contact data that further represents a third tactile input and a fourth tactile input detected by the touch-sensitive device;

wherein the act of identifying further identifies, with unique identifications, second, third, and fourth contact data of said contact data, said second contact data representing the second tactile input, said third contact data representing the third tactile input, and said fourth contact data representing the fourth tactile input, said unique identifications effective to differentiate each of said first, second, third, and fourth contact data; and

wherein the act of initiating is further based on said second, third, and fourth contact data, and initiates the application to provide said function, said function further associated with the second, third, and fourth tactile inputs.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising messaging the application with an update of available identifications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identification persists until the first tactile input is not represented in the contact data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identification is different than an identification of the second contact data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is an implementation of an application program interface (API).

9. A system comprising:

a touch-sensitive device configured to detect two or more tactile inputs, the two or more tactile inputs being represented in contact data; and

an input/output module configured to persistently identify first contact data representing a first tactile input included in the two or more tactile inputs with a unique identification that persists until the first tactile input is no longer represented in the contact data, the unique identification effective to enable differentiation between the first contact data and second contact data of the contact data that represents a second tactile input.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the input/output module interacts with an application to initiate a function that is associated with the first tactile input as represented in the first contact data.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the function is at least one of a mapped function or raw data entry.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the input/output module is an implementation of an application program interface (API).

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the input/output module recognizes a gesture representing the first tactile input from a group of current gestures from which the input/output module may select.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the input/output module is further configured to pass the unique identification as an argument to a notification to an application that is interacting with the input/output module and is coupled to the system.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the input/output module is further configured to:

persistently identify the second contact data representing the second tactile input included in the two or more tactile inputs with a second unique identification that persists until the second tactile input is no longer represented in the contact data; and

recognize a gesture based on the first contact data representing the first tactile input and the second contact data representing the second tactile input, the first contact data and the second contact data differentiated by the first unique identification and the second unique identification, respectively.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions therein that, when executed, performs acts comprising:

convert contact detector output into contact data that represents an individual tactile input included in two or more tactile inputs detected by a touch-sensitive device including one or more contact detectors;

persistently identify the contact data representing the individual tactile input with a unique identification that is unique among two or more identifications individually identifying contact data representing one or more other tactile inputs of the two or more tactile inputs in the contact data, in which the unique identification persists until the individual tactile input is no longer represented in the contact data and is effective to differentiate the contact data representing the individual tactile input from the one or more other tactile inputs; and

initiate an application to provide a function associated with the individual tactile input represented in the contact data.

17. The media of claim 16, wherein the function is at least one of a mapped function or raw data entry.

18. The media of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable to pass to the application a notification including the unique identification as an argument to the notification.

19. The media of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable to message the application with an update of the two or more identifications.

20. The media of claim 16, wherein the unique identification is unique among identifications currently and individually representing each of the one or more tactile inputs in the contact data.