TOUCH FILTERING THROUGH VIRTUAL AREAS ON A TOUCH SCREEN

• US 20140049502A1
• Filed: 08/14/2012
• Published: 02/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Limited (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Limited (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Santos, Maria Rhea
• Granted Patent: US 9,785,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a touch controller includes a touch frame processing component adapted to receive sensor signals containing information about a touch point on a touch screen. The touch frame processing component processes the sensor signals to generate touch information associated with each touch point. A touch coordinate processing component is coupled to receive touch information from the touch frame processing component and includes virtual area parameters that define a plurality of virtual areas on the touch screen. The touch coordinate processing component is operable to identify which one of the plurality of virtual areas contains the current touch point and to report or filter the current touch point as a function of the identified virtual area.

Claims

1. A touch controller, comprising:

a touch frame processing component adapted to receive sensor signals containing information about a touch point on a touch screen, the touch frame processing component operable to process the sensor signals to generate touch information associated with each touch point; and

a touch coordinate processing component coupled to receive the touch information from the touch frame processing component, the touch coordinate processing component including virtual area parameters that define a plurality of virtual areas on the touch screen, the touch coordinate processing component operable to identify which one of the plurality of virtual areas contains a current touch point and to report or filter the current touch point as a function of the identified virtual area.

2. The touch controller of claim 1, wherein when the touch coordinate processing component reports the current touch point this reporting includes advanced touch information that includes a virtual area identifier indicating which one of the virtual areas contains the current touch point.

3. The touch controller of claim 2, wherein the advanced touch information includes a location of the current touch point and the association of one of a touch-in, touch-out, and touch-motion type of touch event with the current touch point.

4. The touch controller of claim 3,

wherein the touch information generated by the touch frame processing component includes the association of one of a touch-in, touch-out, and touch-motion type of touch event with the current touch point;

and

wherein the touch coordinate processing component is further operable to change the type of touch event reported for the current touch point as a function of the identified virtual area containing the current touch point and an identified virtual area containing a previous touch point.

5. The touch controller of claim 1, wherein the touch coordinate processing component includes a plurality of registers operable to store configurable virtual area parameters that define the plurality of virtual areas and the characteristics of the virtual areas.

6. The touch controller of claim 5, wherein the virtual areas have a plurality of different shapes, the virtual area parameters including virtual area coordinate parameters that define the shape of each virtual area.

7. The touch controller of claim 6, wherein the virtual area parameters further comprise for each virtual area:

a virtual area identifier having a value that uniquely identifies the virtual area;

a layer parameter defining the virtual area as a top or bottom layer;

an enablement parameter having a first value that enables the virtual area and a second value that disables the virtual area;

touch-count parameters that define a current touch count and a virtual area touch count threshold for the virtual area;

a touch size parameter having a value that defines at least one of the permissible sizes of the current touch point for the virtual area; and

virtual area touch event parameters having values indicating the types of touch events that will be reported for the virtual area.

8. The touch controller of claim 1, wherein the touch information further for the current touch point includes touch pressure, touch size, touch event, and touch location information.

9. A method of filtering detected touch points on a touch screen, the method comprising:

determining a location of a touch point on a touch screen;

identifying which one of a plurality of virtual areas on the touch screen includes the location the touch point; and

filtering reporting of the touch point based upon the identified virtual area.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each virtual area has a corresponding virtual area identifier and the operation of identifying includes assigning the virtual area identifier of the identified virtual area to the touch point.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein at least some of the virtual areas have a layer parameter that defines the virtual area as a top layer and at least some of the virtual areas have a layer parameter that defines the virtual area as a bottom layer, and wherein the operation of identifying further comprises:

determining whether any of the virtual layers defined as top layers includes the touch point; and

if the touch point is not included in any of the virtual areas defined as top layers, determining if the touch point is included in any of the virtual areas defined as bottom layers.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the operation of identifying comprises identifying the virtual area utilizing virtual area coordinates that define the virtual area and the location of the touch point.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein determining a location of a touch point on a touch screen further comprises generating touch information for the touch point, the touch information including the location of the touch point and including a type of touch event for the touch point.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein filtering reporting of the touch point based upon the identified virtual area includes comparing virtual area parameters associated with the identified virtual area to the touch information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the virtual area parameters comprise for each virtual area:

virtual area coordinate parameters that define a shape of the virtual area;

a virtual area identifier having a value that uniquely identifies the virtual area;

a layer parameter defining the virtual area as a top or bottom layer;

an enablement parameter having a first value that enables the virtual area and a second value that disables the virtual area;

touch-count parameters that define a current touch count and a virtual area touch count threshold for the virtual area;

a touch size parameter having a value that defines at least one permissible size of the current touch point for the virtual area; and

virtual area touch event parameters having values indicating the types of touch events that will be reported for the virtual area.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering reporting of the touch point based upon the identified virtual area comprises filtering based upon the type of touch event in the touch information of the touch point and the virtual area touch event parameters for the identified virtual area.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering reporting of the touch point based upon the identified virtual area comprises filtering reporting when the touch count reaches the virtual area touch count threshold.

18. An electronic system, comprising:

processing circuitry;

a touch screen; and

a touch controller coupled to the processing circuitry and the touch screen, the touch controller comprising;

a touch frame processing component adapted to receive sensor signals containing information about a touch point on a touch screen, the touch frame processing component operable to process the sensor signals to generate touch information associated with each touch point; and

a touch coordinate processing component coupled to receive the touch information from the touch frame processing component, the touch coordinate processing component including virtual area parameters that define a plurality of virtual areas on the touch screen, the touch coordinate processing component operable to identify which one of the plurality of virtual areas contains a current touch point and to report or filter the current touch point as a function of the identified virtual area.

19. The electronic system of claim 18, wherein the processing circuitry comprises cellular telephone processing circuitry.

20. The electronic system of claim 18, wherein the touch screen comprises a capacitive touch screen.

21. The electronic system of claim 18, wherein each component comprises a software module executing on suitable digital circuitry.

22. The electronic system of claim 18, wherein when the touch coordinate processing component reports the current touch point this reporting includes advanced touch information that includes a virtual area identifier indicating which one of the virtual areas contains the current touch point.

23. The electronic system of claim 22, wherein the advanced touch information includes a location of the current touch point and the association of one of a touch-in, touch-out, and touch-motion type of touch event with the current touch point.

24. The electronic system of claim 23,

wherein the touch information generated by the touch frame processing component includes the association of one of a touch-in, touch-out, and touch-motion type of touch event with the current touch point;

and

wherein the touch coordinate processing component is further operable to change the type of touch event reported for the current touch point as a function of the identified virtual area containing the current touch point and an identified virtual area containing a previous touch point.

25. The electronic system of claim 18, wherein the touch coordinate processing component includes a plurality of registers operable to store configurable virtual area parameters that define the plurality of virtual areas and the characteristics of the virtual areas.