Far-field input identification

• US 7,876,310 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Issued: 01/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Westerman, Wayne C., Hotelling, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen; Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marinelli; Patrick
• Application Number:
  US11/619,505
• Publication Number:
  US 20080158168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-183, 345/104, 178 1801- 2003
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 Static hand or arm

Abstract

Techniques for identifying an object in close proximity to, but not in contact with, a multi-touch touch-screen device are described. By way of example, a cheek or ear hovering a short distance from the touch-surface (e.g., approximately 1 to 3 centimeters) may be identified and distinguished from physical contacts to the surface.

Claims

1. A method to identify an object that is hovering above but not in contact with a multi-touch touch-surface, comprising:

obtaining a proximity image having a plurality of pixels;

generating a far-field image from the proximity image, the far-field image having a plurality of pixels;

identifying background pixels in the proximity image;

generating a far-field measure value by combining pixel values in the far-field image that correspond to background pixels in the proximity image;

determining an object is hovering above a multi-touch touch-surface if the far-field measure value is above a specified threshold; and

controlling an operation of a device if an object is determined to be hovering above the multi-touch touch-surface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of generating the far-field image comprises:

subtracting a noise value from each pixel value in the proximity image to generate a first intermediate image having a plurality of pixels;

saturating pixel values in the first intermediate image to generate a second intermediate image having a plurality of pixels; and

filtering the second intermediate image to generate the far-field image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the noise value is a constant value for all pixels in the proximity image.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the noise value is unique to each pixel in the proximity image.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of saturating comprises changing each pixel value in the first intermediate image that is above a first specified value to a second specified value.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of filtering comprises averaging at least two spatially adjacent pixels in the second intermediate image.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the act of averaging comprises performing a weighted average.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of identifying background pixels comprises segmenting the proximity image to identify background pixels and non-background pixels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of combining comprises linearly combining pixel values identified as background pixels.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of combining comprises non-linearly combining pixel values identified as background pixels.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of non-linearly combining pixel values comprises non-linearly amplifying pixel values identified as background pixels.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of generating the far-field measure includes weighting each background pixel value with a touch-surface location factor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the touch-surface location factor associated with a first collection of pixels has a lower value than the touch-surface location factor associated with a second collection of pixels.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first collection of pixels are associated with pixels adjacent to an edge of the proximity image.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of controlling comprises changing the operation state of the device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of controlling comprises placing the device into a low-power state.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of controlling comprises ignoring the identified hovering object.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a mobile telephone.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the device comprises one of the devices selected from the group consisting of:

tablet computer system, a hand-held computer system, a portable music player system, and a portable video player system.

20. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored thereon for causing the programmable control device to perform the method of claim 1.

21. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a multi-touch input touch-surface component;

means for receiving a proximity image from the multi-touch input touch-surface; and

processing means for performing acts in accordance with claim 1.

22. The device in accordance with claim 21, wherein the portable electronic device comprises a mobile telephone.

23. The device in accordance with claim 21, wherein the portable electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a tablet computer system, a hand-held computer system, a portable music player system, and a portable video player system.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of generating the far-field measure value includes amplifying pixel values which are below a given value.

25. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of saturating the pixel values in the first intermediate image includes setting a saturation limit value to be less than the peak value from fingers or thumbs hovering within approximately 1 to 2 millimeters of the touch surface, and setting pixel values which exceed the saturation limit value to be equal to the saturation limit value.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of generating the far-field image comprises saturating pixel values in the proximity image.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the act of saturating pixel values includes setting a saturation limit value to be less than the peak value from fingers or thumbs hovering over the touch surface, and setting pixel values which exceed the saturation limit value to be equal to the saturation limit value.

28. The method of claim 27 further including subtracting a noise value from the proximity image prior to saturating and then saturating the noise subtracted proximity image.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the act of saturating the pixel values includes setting a saturation limit value to be between 3 and 6 standard deviations of noise associated with an initial far-field image.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximity image includes patch pixels corresponding to an object in contact with the touch-surface and the background pixels corresponding to other than patch pixels.