CURVED SURFACE INPUT DEVICE WITH NORMALIZED CAPACITIVE SENSING

• US 20100060568A1
• Filed: 09/05/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Kocalar, Erturk, Fisher, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US12/205,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20100060568A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/9622 using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96031 Combination of touch switch and LC display
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/96066 Thumbwheel, potentiometer, scrollbar or slider simulation by touch switch
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960725 Charge-transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960755 Constructional details of capacitive touch and proximity switches

Abstract

A curved surface input device with normalized capacitive sensing is disclosed. The input device can normalize capacitive sensing through an overlay having a varying thickness, such as an overlay with a curved surface. The capacitive sensing normalization can be implemented in software, hardware or a combination of software and hardware. A software implementation for normalizing capacitive sensing can comprise adjusting the sensitivity of a sensing operation associated with different sensor elements of the input device. A hardware implementation for normalizing capacitive sensing can comprise adjusting a hardware configuration of the input device associated with one or more physical parameters that can influence the capacitive sensitivity of the sensor elements, such as an area of the sensor elements, a distance between the sensor elements and other conductive input device elements (such as a ground plane), and a dielectric constant associated with the overlay.

Claims

1. An input device comprising:

multiple sensor elements comprising a first sensor element and a second sensor element, and

a controller configured to detect an input by performing a sensing operation associated with each of the multiple sensor elements, the sensing operation associated with the first sensor element being performed with a first sensitivity and the sensing operation associated with the second sensor element being performed with a second sensitivity.

2. The input device of claim 1 comprising a cover overlaying the multiple sensor elements, the cover comprising a first thickness at a location associated with the first sensor element and a second thickness at a location associated with the second sensor element.

3. The input device of claim 1, wherein the multiple sensor elements are circumferentially arranged relative to a first point.

4. The input device of claim 1, wherein the sensing operation comprises generating a value associated with a capacitance of the sensor element for which the sensing operation is being performed, and comparing the generated value with a threshold value to determine whether an input has been applied to the input device.

5. The input device of claim 4, wherein the threshold value establishes the sensitivity with which the sensing operation is performed.

6. The input device of claim 4, wherein the sensing operation associated with the first sensor element compares the generated value with a first threshold value to determine whether an input has been applied to the input device, and the sensing operation associated with the second sensor element compares the generated value with a second threshold value to determine whether an input has been applied to the input device.

7. The input device of claim 6, wherein the first threshold value is associated with the first sensor element in a lookup table and the second threshold value is associated with the second sensor element in the lookup table.

8. A method comprising:

providing multiple sensor elements,

performing a calibration operation for each of the multiple sensor elements to establish a baseline sense level, and

determining a threshold sense level for each of the multiple sensor elements based on the baseline sense level.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising circumferentially arranging the multiple sensor elements relative to a first point associated with an input device.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising determining whether an input has been applied to an input device by performing a sensing operation for each of the multiple sensor elements.

11. The method of claim 8, comprising covering the multiple sensor elements with an overlay, the overlay comprising a first thickness at a location associated with a first sensor element and a second thickness at a location associated with a second sensor element.

12. The method of claim 8, comprising storing the threshold sense level for each of the multiple sensor elements in a lookup table.

13. An electronic device comprising:

an input device comprising multiple sensor elements,

a surface covering the multiple sensor elements, the surface comprising a curvature, and

a controller configured to adjust a sensitivity of a sensing operation for each of the multiple sensor elements to compensate for the curvature of the surface.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the multiple sensor elements are circumferentially arranged relative to a first point.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the sensing operation is performed to determine whether an input has been applied to the input device.

16. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the sensitivity of the sensing operation is based upon a threshold sense level associated with each of the multiple sensor elements in a lookup table.

17. An electronic device comprising:

an input device comprising multiple sensor elements, and

an overlay covering the multiple sensor elements,

the overlay comprising a varying thickness, and

the input device comprising a hardware configuration arranged to normalize capacitive sensing associated with the multiple sensor elements through the varying thickness of the overlay.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the hardware configuration comprises the multiple sensor elements comprising different areas.

19. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the hardware configuration comprises a ground plane associated with the multiple sensor elements and comprising a varying density.

20. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the hardware configuration comprises the overlay comprising multiple sections, the multiple sections comprising varying dielectric constants.

21. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the hardware configuration comprises the multiple sensor elements and a ground plane, the multiple sensor elements and the ground plane arranged at varying distances from each other.