Contact tracking and identification module for touch sensing

• US 8,441,453 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Westerman, Wayne Carl, Elias, John Greer
• Primary Examiner(s): Sim, Yong H
• Application Number:
  US12/479,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,439 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-184, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24137 Distances to cluster centroïds
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04101 2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0447 Position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• 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: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/19173 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1983 Syntactic or structural pattern recognition, e.g. symbolic string recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 : Static hand or arm
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/9622 : using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960725 : Charge-transfer

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

Claims

1. A method of generating a control signal of a computing system having a touch sensitive surface, the method comprising:

obtaining motion information of a plurality of contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices on or near the surface at the same time, the motion information including a first value of a first component of motion that is one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion, and a second value of a second component of motion that is a different one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion than the first component of motion;

determining an input activity;

modifying the motion information to obtain modified motion information, the modifying including downscaling the second value with respect to the first value; and

generating a control signal of the input activity based on the modified motion information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the motion information includes obtaining tracking information of each of the contacts and determining the motion information based on the tracking information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the motion information includes determining one of the first and the second values based on the tracking information of some, but not all, of the plurality of contacts.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the input activity includes graphically manipulating a graphical object in multiple degrees of freedom, the multiple degrees of freedom corresponding to at least the first and second components of motion.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion and the second component of motion is scaling motion, the translation motion corresponding to a translation manipulation of the input activity, and the scaling motion corresponding to one of a resizing manipulation and a zooming manipulation of the input activity.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion and the second component of motion is rotational motion, the translation motion corresponding to a translation manipulation of the input activity, and the rotational motion corresponding to a rotational manipulation of the input activity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the motion information is performed in response to the selection of the input activity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a number of contacts of the plurality of contacts, wherein the input activity is determined based on the number of contacts.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein downscaling the second value includes clipping the second value to zero.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein downscaling the second value includes downscaling the second value based on a ratio of the second value to the first value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein downscaling the second value includes applying a dead-zone filter to the second value.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the motion information further includes obtaining a motion sensitivity parameter corresponding to the control signal, and modifying the first value based the motion sensitivity parameter.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the motion information further includes discretizing the first value into one or more units of motion, each unit of motion corresponding to a single command of the control signal.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein generating the control signal includes generating a single input event of the control signal based on one unit of motion, and then disabling further input event generation for the control signal.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the motion information further includes projecting the first value onto a direction of the input activity.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion, and projecting the first value includes projecting the first value onto a unit vector in the direction of the input activity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the input activity includes an arrow key input, and the direction of the input activity corresponds to the direction of the arrow key input.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a touch sensitive surface;

a tracking module that tracks a plurality of contacts to determine tracking information of the contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices on or near the surface at the same time;

a motion component extraction module that determines motion information of the plurality of contacts based on the tracking information, the motion information including a first value of a first component of motion that is one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion, and a second value of a second component of motion that is a different one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion than the first component of motion; and

an input generation module that determines an input activity, modifies the motion information to obtain modified motion information, the modifying including downscaling the second value with respect to the first value, and generating a control signal of the input activity based on the modified motion information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a display for displaying a graphical object, wherein the input activity graphically manipulates the graphical object in multiple degrees of freedom, the multiple degrees of freedom corresponding to at least the first and second components of motion.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the input generation module modifies the motion information in response to the selection of the input activity.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the tracking module further determines a number of contacts of the plurality of contacts, and the input generation module determines the input activity based on the number of contacts.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the motion component extraction module determines one of the first and the second values based on the tracking information of some, but not all, of the plurality of contacts.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein downscaling the second value includes clipping the second value to zero.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein downscaling the second value includes downscaling the second value based on a ratio of the second value to the first value.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein downscaling the second value includes applying a dead-zone filter to the second value.

26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein modifying the motion information further includes projecting the first value onto a direction of the input activity.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion, and projecting the first value includes projecting the first value onto a unit vector in the direction of the input activity.

28. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions stored therein, which when executed by a computing system including a touch sensitive surface causes the computing system to perform a method comprising:

obtaining motion information of a plurality of contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices on or near the surface at the same time, the motion information including a first value of a first component of motion that is one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion, and a second value of a second component of motion that is a different one of translation motion, rotational motion, and scaling motion than the first component of motion;

determining and input activity;

modifying the motion information to obtain modified motion information, the modifying including downscaling the second value with respect to the first value; and

generating a control signal of the input activity based on the modified motion information.

29. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein obtaining the motion information includes obtaining tracking information of each of the contacts and determining the motion information based on the tracking information.

30. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein determining the motion information includes determining one of the first and the second values based on the tracking information of some, but not all, of the plurality of contacts.

31. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the input activity includes graphically manipulating a graphical object in multiple degrees of freedom, the multiple degrees of freedom corresponding to at least the first and second components of motion.

32. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion and the second component of motion is scaling motion, the translation motion corresponding to a translation manipulation of the input activity, and the scaling motion corresponding to one of a resizing manipulation and a zooming manipulation of the input activity.

33. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion and the second component of motion is rotational motion, the translation motion corresponding to a translation manipulation of the input activity, and the rotational motion corresponding to a rotational manipulation of the input activity.

34. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein modifying the motion information is performed in response to the selection of the input activity.

35. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, the method further comprising:

determining a number of contacts of the plurality of contacts, wherein the input activity is determined based on the number of contacts.

36. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein downscaling the second value includes clipping the second value to zero.

37. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein downscaling the second value includes downscaling the second value based on a ratio of the second value to the first value.

38. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein downscaling the second value includes applying a dead-zone filter to the second value.

39. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein modifying the motion information further includes obtaining a motion sensitivity parameter corresponding to the control signal, and modifying the first component of motion based the motion sensitivity parameter.

40. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein modifying the motion information further includes discretizing the first value into one or more units of motion, each unit of motion corresponding to a single command of the control signal.

41. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein generating the control signal includes generating a single input event of the control signal based on one unit of motion, and then disabling further input event generation for the control signal.

42. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein modifying the motion information further includes projecting the first value onto a direction of the input activity.

43. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 42, wherein the first component of motion is translation motion, and projecting the first value includes projecting the first value onto a unit vector in the direction of the input activity.