Passive touch system and method of detecting user input
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An imaging assembly comprising:
- a substantially rectangular frame configured to surround a region of interest;
at least two active pixel digital cameras, each digital camera being mounted adjacent a different corner of said frame, each digital camera having a field of view that (i) images at least a portion of the region of interest, and (ii) images at least a portion of the frame, said digital cameras being oriented to capture overlapping images of said region of interest, at least one of said at least two digital cameras having a sensor comprising a plurality of pixels extending in at least one direction; and
at least one processor receiving the images from each digital camera, and determining therefrom an absolute position of an object of interest in said region of interest, wherein said at least one processor comprises;
first processing structure processing an image from at least one digital camera, said first processing structure highlighting at least one pointer in said image from the at least one digital camera; and
second processing structure determining the location of said highlighted pointer in said image.
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Abstract
A passive touch system includes a passive touch surface and at least two cameras associated with the touch surface. The at least two cameras acquire images of the touch surface from different locations and have overlapping fields of view. A processor receives and processes images acquired by the at least two cameras to detect the existence of a pointer therein and to determine the location of the pointer relative to the touch surface. Actual pointer contact with the touch surface and pointer hover above the touch surface can be determined.
411 Citations
56 Claims
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1. An imaging assembly comprising:
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a substantially rectangular frame configured to surround a region of interest; at least two active pixel digital cameras, each digital camera being mounted adjacent a different corner of said frame, each digital camera having a field of view that (i) images at least a portion of the region of interest, and (ii) images at least a portion of the frame, said digital cameras being oriented to capture overlapping images of said region of interest, at least one of said at least two digital cameras having a sensor comprising a plurality of pixels extending in at least one direction; and at least one processor receiving the images from each digital camera, and determining therefrom an absolute position of an object of interest in said region of interest, wherein said at least one processor comprises; first processing structure processing an image from at least one digital camera, said first processing structure highlighting at least one pointer in said image from the at least one digital camera; and second processing structure determining the location of said highlighted pointer in said image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An imaging assembly comprising:
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a substantially rectangular frame surrounding a region of interest in front of a display surface; at least two active pixel imaging devices, each imaging device being mounted adjacent a different corner of said frame, said imaging devices capturing overlapping images of said region of interest, at least one of said cameras having a sensor comprising a plurality of pixels extending in at least one direction; and a processor associated with the imaging devices, the processor processing pixel data of images captured by the imaging devices to detect the absolute position of a pointer in the region of interest in the front of the display surface, wherein said processor comprises; first processing structure processing an image from at least one imaging device, said first processing structure highlighting at least one pointer in said image from the at least one imaging device; and second processing structure determining the location of said highlighted pointer in said image. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A touch system comprising:
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a substantially rectangular touch surface; a region of interest that is in front of, and at least partially includes, said touch surface; at least two active pixel digital cameras, each digital camera (i) having plurality of pixels extending in at least one direction, and (ii) being mounted adjacent a different corner of said touch surface, said digital cameras being oriented to capture overlapping images of said region of interest; and a processor processing pixel data of images captured by the digital cameras to detect the existence of a pointer in the region of interest, wherein said processor comprises; first processing structure processing an image from at least one digital camera, said first processing structure highlighting at least one pointer in said image from the at least one digital camera; and second processing structure determining the location of said highlighted pointer in said image. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A touch system comprising:
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a substantially rectangular touch surface; a region of interest that is in front of, and at least partially includes, said touch surface; at least two active pixel imaging devices, each imaging device being mounted adjacent a different corner of said touch surface, said imaging devices capturing overlapping images of said region of interest; and a processor associated with said imaging devices and configured to process pixel data of images captured by the imaging devices to detect the existence of a pointer in the region of interest, wherein said processor comprises; first processing structure processing an image from at least one imaging device, said first processing structure highlighting at least one pointer in said image from the at least one imaging device; and second processing structure determining the location of said highlighted pointer in said image. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A method comprising:
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acquiring overlapping images of a region of interest surrounded by a substantially rectangular frame using at least two active pixel digital cameras, each digital camera being mounted adjacent a different corner of said frame and having a field of view that (i) images at least a portion of the region of interest and (ii) images at least a portion of the frame, at least one of the digital cameras having a sensor comprising a plurality of pixels extending in at least one direction; processing an image from at least one digital camera with first processing structure to highlight at least one object of interest in the image; and determining the location of the highlighted object in the image using second processing structure.
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Specification