Negative pixel compensation

• US 8,581,879 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Vieta, William Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Shalwala, Bipin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lubit, Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US12/691,328
• Publication Number:
  US 20110175823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 178 1801- 2004
• US Class Current: 345/174
• 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 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04182 Filtering of noise external to the device and not generated by digitiser components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0443 using a single layer of sensing electrodes
• 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

Abstract

Negative pixel compensation in a touch sensor panel is disclosed. A method can compensate for a negative pixel effect in touch signal outputs due to poor grounding of an object touching the panel. To do so, the method can include determining at least one bound for a negative pixel compensation factor based on touch signal values, estimating the compensation factor within the determined bound based on the touch signal values that are negative, where the negative values indicate the presence of the negative pixel effect, and applying the estimated compensation factor to the touch signal outputs to compensate the touch signal values for the negative pixel effect.

Claims

1. A method for compensating an acquired touch image for a negative pixel effect, the method comprising:

determining at least one bound for a compensation factor based on one or more acquired touch image values, wherein the one or more touch image values represent data acquired from a touch sensor panel;

estimating the compensation factor within the determined bound based on the touch image values of the one or more touch image values that are negative, wherein the negative touch image values are indicative of a grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to a touch sensor panel and wherein the estimated compensation factor is a function of an estimated touch and grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to the touch sensor panel; and

applying the estimated compensation factor to the one or more touch image values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one bound comprises:

determining an upper bound for the compensation factor based on at least one of a maximum attainable touch image value or a sum of expected touch image values; and

determining a lower bound for the compensation factor to be about zero.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the compensation factor comprises:

estimating a compensation factor for each negative touch image value;

calculating a weight factor for each estimated compensation factor; and

applying the calculated weight factors to the corresponding estimated compensation factors to produce the compensation factor within the determined bound.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating the weight factor comprises:

calculating a difference between the corresponding negative touch image value and zero; and

associating the weight factor with the calculated difference.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the estimated compensation factor comprises:

calculating correction image values indicative of correction to be made to the touch image values; and

adding a product of the estimated compensation factor and the calculated correction image values to the touch image values.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising subtracting noise bias from the touch image values.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising applying a scale factor to at least one of the touch image values or the compensated touch image values for image consistency.

8. A touch sensitive device comprising:

a touch sensor panel comprising multiple touch locations for sensing a touch on the panel; and

a processor in communication with the panel and configured to

capture an image of the sensed touch wherein the image of the sensed touch includes one or touch image values,

identify negative values of the one or more touch image values in the captured image,

determine a bound of a compensation factor based on the identified negative values for adjusting the captured image,

estimate the compensation factor within the determined bound based on the touch image values of the one or more touch image values that are negative, wherein the negative touch image values are indicative of a grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to a touch sensor panel and wherein the estimated compensation factor is a function of an estimated touch and grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to the touch sensor panel; and

adjust the identified negative values to about zero using the estimated compensation factor.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein adjusting the identified negative values is based on a linear relationship between the captured image and the compensation factor.

10. The device of claim 8 incorporated into at least one of a mobile telephone, a digital media player, or a personal computer.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions for compensating for a negative pixel effect in a touch sensor panel, that when executed by a processor causes the processor to:

determine a bound for a compensation factor based on one or more values of a touch image captured by the panel wherein the one or more touch image values represent data acquired from the touch sensor panel;

estimate the compensation factor within the determined bound based on the touch image values of the one or more touch image values that are negative, wherein the negative touch image values are indicative of a grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to a touch sensor panel and wherein the estimated compensation factor is a function of an estimated touch and grounding condition of a user or object touching or in close proximity to the touch sensor panel; and

apply the estimated compensation factor to the one or more touch image values to compensate for the negative pixel effect.

12. The medium of claim 11, wherein the processor applies the estimated compensation factor to the negative touch image values to set the negative touch image values to about zero.

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein the processor applies the estimated compensation factor to the touch image values that are positive to boost the positive touch image values in a positive direction.