Touch-sensitive input screen having regional sensitivity and resolution properties

• US 6,459,424 B1
• Filed: 08/10/1999
• Issued: 10/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Resman, Mark F.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CHANH DUY
• Application Number:
  US09/371,159
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/174, 345/132, 345/901, 345/902, 345/600, 345/475, 345/698, 345/699, 178/18.01, 178/18.05, 178/18.06, 178/18.07, 178/18.03
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/04 Structural and physical details of display devices
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters

Abstract

A touch screen panel having varied region-specific combinations of resolution and touch sensitivity may also incorporate display functionality. For a first embodiment of the invention, the majority of the screen area exhibits low resolution, high touch force characteristics. A smaller area of the screen exhibits low touch force and high resolution properties. For a second embodiment of the invention, at least a portion of the peripheral regions (i.e., regions near the circumferential edge) of the screen are provided with regions of low touch force high resolution properties. These regions may be programmed to act as scroll bars, which would allow the user to change locations in a document of which only a portion is displayed on the screen. In the central regions of the screen, higher touch force and lower resolution provide palm rejection and coarse marking or movement capability with low bandwidth utilization. Either the varied screen properties may be incorporated into the screen during its manufacture, or the screen may be designed so that different resolution and touch sensitivity properties can be assigned to different regions of the screen to suit the user'"'"'s needs.

Claims

1. A touch-sensitive screen for providing data input to a data processing system, said touch-sensitive screen comprising:

a major screen region;

at least one contiguous, non-overlapping minor screen region, said minor screen region having different touch and different force detection resolution properties than said major screen region, each screen region responsive to a touch input of a finger or stylus in that region; and

a matrix of touch sensing elements which are periodically scanned both horizontally and vertically in order to detect changing x and y positions of a touch input, and wherein the resolution is varied between screen regions by varying the percentage of sensing elements scanned during a single scanning operation in response to a determination of in which region the touch input has occurred.

2. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 1, wherein said screen incorporates image display capability.

3. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 1, wherein said minor screen region has higher resolution and responds to a lower touch force threshold than said major screen region.

4. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 3, wherein said minor region is in located in a corner of said screen.

5. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 3, wherein said minor region is about an order of magnitude smaller in area than said major region.

6. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 1, where a first minor region is positioned along a horizontal edge of said screen and a second minor region is positioned along a vertical edge of said screen.

7. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 6, wherein each of said minor regions possesses higher resolution than said major region, and each minor region is functionable as a scrollbar.

8. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 1, wherein touch inputs are detected by position detection elements formed from overlapping first and second arrays of parallel conductor strips, which are embedded within the screen and parallel to an upper touchable surface, the strips of said first array being positioned perpendicular with respect to the strips of said second array and dielectrically insulated therefrom.

9. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 8, wherein each of said conductor strips is formed from indium tin oxide and the screen incorporates display functionality.

10. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 8, wherein resolution of an object'"'"'s position on the touchable surface may be enhanced by means of capacitive balance circuitry, which is activated when a touch input is made to one region of the screen, but deactivated when made to another region.

11. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 10, wherein said resolution may be progammably varied by a user.

12. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 8, wherein touch sensitivity is variable between regions by adjusting a capacitive coupling threshold value to a higher level when touch inputs are made to one region than when made to another region.

13. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 12, wherein touch sensitivity is programmably varied by a user.

14. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 8, which further comprises a resilient layer overlying the face of the screen which is compressible to increase capacitive coupling between an object touching the screen and said position detection elements.

15. A touch-sensitive display screen for providing data input to a data processing system, said screen comprising:

a major screen region and at least one minor screen region, said minor screen region having different resolution and touch force detection properties than said major screen region;

a matrix of touch sensing elements which are periodically scanned both horizontally and vertically in order to detect changing x and y positions of a touch input; and

wherein resolution is varied between regions by varying the percentage of sensing elements scanned during a single scanning operation in response to a determination of in which region the touch input has occurred.

16. The touch-sensitive display screen of claim 15, wherein said minor screen region has higher resolution and responds to a lower touch force threshold than said major screen region, and is located in a corner of said screen.

17. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 15, wherein a first minor region is positioned along a horizontal edge of said screen and is programmed to function as a horizontal scrollbar, a second minor region is positioned along a vertical edge of said screen and is programmed to function as a vertical scrollbar, and each minor region has higher resolution and responds to a lower touch force threshold than said major screen region.

18. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 15, wherein touch inputs are detected by position detection elements formed from overlapping first and second arrays of parallel, substantially transparent conductor strips, which are embedded within the screen and parallel to an upper touchable surface, the strips of said first array being positioned perpendicular with respect to the strips of said second array and dielectrically insulated therefrom.

19. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 18, wherein resolution of an object'"'"'s position on the touchable surface may be enhanced by means of capacitive balance circuitry, which is activated when a touch input is made to one region of the screen, but deactivated when made to another region of the screen.

20. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 19, wherein said resolution may be programmably varied by a user.

21. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 18, wherein touch sensitivity is variable between regions by adjusting a capacitive coupling threshold value to a-higher level when touch inputs are made to one region than when made to another region.

22. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 21, wherein touch sensitivity is programmably variable by a user.

23. The touch-sensitive screen of claim 18, which further comprises a resilient layer overlying the face of the screen which is compressible to increase capacitive coupling between an object touching the screen and said position detection elements.