All points addressable touch sensing surface

• US 9,454,274 B1
• Filed: 08/19/2014
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Parade Technologies, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kurikawa, Yohei
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Assistant Examiner(s): McLoone, Peter D
• Application Number:
  US14/463,240
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0446 using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/08 Cursor circuits

Abstract

A touch-sensing apparatus may include a first controller configured to measure a first set of capacitance values from a first area of a touch-sensing surface and a second controller coupled with the first controller, where the second controller is configured to receive the first set of capacitance values from the first controller, and calculate a first position of a contact at the touch-sensing surface based on the first set of capacitance values and a second set of capacitance values measured from a second area of the touch-sensing surface adjacent to the first area of the touch-sensing surface.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a first controller and a second controller coupled to the first controller, wherein;

the apparatus is coupled to a touch-sensing surface including a first area and a second area that are adjacent to each other, the first area including a first subset of sensor elements, and the second area including a second subset of sensor elements;

the first controller is configured to;

measure a first set of capacitance values associated with the first subset of sensor elements;

in response to determining that a contact has occurred within a predetermined distance from an edge of the first area, provide the first set of capacitance values to the second controller; and

in response to determining that a contact has occurred in the first area at a location having at least the predetermined distance from the edge, calculate a centroid position of the contact based on the first set of capacitance values and provide the centroid position to the second controller; and

the second controller is configured to;

in accordance with receiving the first set of capacitance values from the first controller, calculate the centroid position of the contact at the touch-sensing surface based on the first set of capacitance values and a second set of capacitance values, wherein the second set of capacitance values are measured from the second subset of sensor elements of the second area, and the first set of capacitance values and the second set of capacitance values are normalized.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second controller is further configured to measure the second set of capacitance values from the second area of the touch-sensing surface.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional controllers each coupled with the second controller, wherein each of the one or more additional controllers is configured to transmit an additional set of capacitance values to the second controller, and wherein the second controller is further configured to calculate the centroid position of the contact based on the one or more additional sets of capacitance values from the one or more additional controllers.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first centroid position of the contact indicates a single location of the contact at the touch-sensing surface at a first time.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the centroid position of the contact includes a first position of the contact at the first time, and the first controller is further configured to:

calculate a second position of the contact at the touch-sensing surface at a second time different from the first time; and

transmit the second position to the second controller.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the edge is adjacent to the second area.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first area includes intersections between sensor electrodes of a first touch sensor array, and wherein the second area includes intersections between sensor elements of a second touch sensor array.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first set of capacitance values are measured from sensor electrode intersections adjacent to the second area of the touch-sensing surface, and wherein the second set of capacitance values are measured from sensor electrode intersections adjacent to the first area of the touch-sensing surface.

9. A method, comprising:

at a first controller coupled to a touch-sensing surface, wherein the touch-sensing surface includes a first area and a second area that are adjacent to each other, the first area includes a first subset of sensor elements, and the second area includes a second subset of sensor elements;

measuring a first set of capacitance values associated with the first subset of sensor elements;

in response to determining that a contact has occurred within a predetermined distance from an edge of the first area based on the first set of capacitance values, providing the first set of capacitance values to a second controller; and

in response to determining that a contact has occurred in the first area at a location having at least the predetermined distance from the edge, calculating a centroid position of the contact based on the first set of capacitance values and providing the centroid position to the second controller; and

at the second controller, which is coupled to the touch-sensing surface;

in accordance with receiving from the first controller a first set of capacitance values measured from the first area of a touch-sensing surface,

calculating the centroid position of the contact at the touch-sensing surface based on the first set of capacitance values and the second set of capacitance values, wherein the second set of capacitance values are measured from the second subset of sensor elements of the second area, and the first set of capacitance values and the second set of capacitance values are normalized.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

measuring by the second controller the second set of capacitance values.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

for each of one or more additional controllers, receiving an additional set of capacitance values measured from a different area of the touch-sensing surface; and

calculating one or more positions of the contact based on the one or more additional sets of capacitance values.

12. The method of claim 9,

wherein an edge region within the predetermined distance from the edge of the first area includes an area smaller than the entire first area and is adjacent to the second area.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the centroid position of the contact indicates a single location of the contact at the touch-sensing surface at a single point in time.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the centroid position of the contact includes a first position of the contact at the single point in time, and the method further comprises:

in the first controller, calculating a second position of the contact at the touch-sensing surface at another point in time different from the single point in time; and

transmitting the second position from the first controller to the second controller.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the first area includes intersections between sensor electrodes of a first touch sensor array, and wherein the second area includes intersections between sensor elements of a second touch sensor array.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the first set of capacitance values are measured from intersections adjacent to the second area of the touch-sensing surface, and wherein the second set of capacitance values are measured from intersections adjacent to the first area of the touch-sensing surface.

17. A system, comprising:

a touch-sensing surface including a first area and a second area that are adjacent to each other, wherein the first area includes a first subset of sensor elements and the second area includes a second subset of sensor elements;

a first controller coupled with the touch-sensing surface; and

a second controller coupled with the touch-sensing surface;

wherein;

the first controller is configured to;

in response to determining that a contact has occurred within a predetermined distance from an edge of the first area, provide the first set of capacitance values to the second controller; and

in response to determining that a contact has occurred in the first area at a location having at least the predetermined distance from the edge, calculate a centroid position of the contact based on the first set of capacitance values and provide the centroid position to the second controller; and

the second controller is configured to;

in accordance with receiving the first set of capacitance values from the first controller, calculate the centroid position of the contact at the touch-sensing surface based on the first set of capacitance values and a second set of capacitance values, wherein the second set of capacitance values are measured from the second subset of sensor elements of the second area, and the first set of capacitance values and the second set of capacitance values are normalized.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising one or more additional controllers each coupled with the touch-sensing surface, wherein each of the one or more additional controllers is configured to measure an additional set of capacitance values from the touch-sensing surface and transmit the additional set of capacitance values to the second controller.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each of the one or more additional controllers is configured to measure the additional set of capacitance values from a different area of the touch-sensing surface.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the first controller is configured to measure the first set of capacitance values from intersections adjacent to the second area of the touch-sensing surface, and wherein the second controller is configured to measure the second set of capacitance values from intersections adjacent to the first area of the touch-sensing surface.