Selective input signal rejection and modification

• US 9,632,608 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Westerman, Wayne Carl, Mullens, Christopher Tenzin
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Prabodh M
• Application Number:
  US14/619,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20150153865A1
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 345156, 345173-184, 178 1801- 1809, 178 1901- 1907, 178 2001- 2004, 338 68
• 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 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• 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 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• 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 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Embodiments are related to user input devices that accept complex user input including a combination of touch and push (or pick) input. Embodiments of the invention provide for selective ignoring or rejection of input received from such devices in order to avoid interpreting unintentional user actions as commands. Furthermore, some input signals can be modified. The selective rejection or modification can be performed by the user interface device itself or by a computing device that includes or is attached to the user interface device. The selective rejection or modification may be performed by a module that processes input signals, performs the necessary rejections and modifications and sends revised input signals to higher level modules.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a user input device including one or more first sensors and one or more second sensors, the user input device configured to sense user input data including at least one touch input from the one or more first sensors and one pick input from the one or more second sensors;

a modification module communicatively coupled to the one or more first sensors and the one or more second sensors and configured to perform different modifications to the user input data in response to different timing patterns of sensed touch and pick inputs; and

a processor configured to process the modified user input data for subsequent use by the electronic device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one touch input is detected independently of the at least one pick input.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein performing a particular modification to the user input data comprises causing an effect by at least one of the sensed touch or pick inputs to be removed or reduced.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to filter the touch input data correlating to the at least one pick input when the pick input is sensed after the at least one touch input has been sensed.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to perform an operation in response to only the sensed at least one touch input.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to report the at least one touch input to the processor for processing when the at least one touch input is sensed after the at least one pick input has been and continues to be sensed.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to perform an operation in response to both the pick input and touch input.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the modification module is configured to perform no modification to a pick input when the pick input is entered simultaneously with the at least one touch input.

9. A method of processing user interface inputs detected by a combination user interface device capable of detecting at least one touch input on a touch panel and at least one pick input causing physical deformation or displacement of the touch panel, the method performed in a computing device and comprising:

receiving first input data from one or more first sensors indicating a plurality of touch inputs;

determining a predefined multi-touch gesture based on the first input data;

after determining the predefined multi-touch gesture, receiving second input data from one or more second sensors indicating a pick input while the multi-touch gesture is in progress; and

filtering the second input data for use by the computing device when the second input data is received while the multi-touch gesture is in progress.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising ignoring the pick input when the second input data is received while the multi-touch gesture is in progress.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising continuing to ignore the pick input after the multi-touch gesture is no longer in progress.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising performing an operation in response to only the first input data when the second input data is received while the multi-touch gesture is in progress.

13. A method of processing user interface inputs detected by a combination user interface device capable of detecting at least one touch input on a touch panel and at least one pick input causing physical deformation or displacement of the touch panel, the method performed in a computing device and comprising:

receiving first input data from one or more second sensors indicating a pick input;

performing a first operation in response to the pick input;

after initiating the performance of the first operation, receiving second input data from one or more first sensors indicating at least one touch input while receiving the first input data; and

performing a second operation in response to the at least one touch input.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising reporting the second input data for processing when the at least one touch input is sensed after the pick input has been and continues to be sensed.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising performing an operation in response to both the pick input and the at least one touch input.