Input apparatus, input detection method, and in-vehicle apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10310672-B2
Application number	US-201715581898-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2017
Priority date	Jun 27, 2016
Publication date	Jun 4, 2019
Grant date	Jun 4, 2019

Abstract

An input apparatus includes a plurality of electrodes spaced apart from each other, a signal processing unit configured to output an input signal depending on a change in a capacitance of each electrode, and a determination unit configured to determine whether an operation object comes in a proximity of at least one of electrodes based on input signals output from the signal processing unit. The determination unit makes a determination such that in a case where one of the input signals is greater than or equal to a first threshold value and an integral value of another of the plurality of input signals in a predetermined integration period is greater than or equal to a second threshold value, it is determined that an operation object has come in a proximity of an electrode corresponding to the one of the input signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An input apparatus to be operated by an operation object, the input apparatus comprising:
a plurality of electrodes disposed so as to be spaced apart from each other, each electrode having a capacitance which changes in accordance with proximity of the operation object to the electrode;
a signal processing unit configured to generate an input signal for each electrode based on a change in the capacitance of the electrode; and
a determination unit configured to receive the input signal of each electrode and determine whether the operation object has come into proximity of at least one of the plurality of electrodes based on a plurality of the input signals output from the signal processing unit,
wherein the determination unit determines that the operation object has come into the proximity of a first electrode among the plurality of electrodes if one of the plurality of input signals corresponding to the first electrode is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, and an integral value of remaining input signals corresponding to remaining electrodes of the plurality of electrodes for a predetermined integration period is greater than or equal to a second threshold value,
and wherein the determination unit includes a plurality of proximity determination units corresponding to the plurality of electrodes, each proximity determination unit including:
a first determination unit configured to determine whether the input signal of corresponding one of the electrodes is greater than or equal to the first threshold value;
an integral operation unit configured to generate the integral value by integrating remaining input signals corresponding to remaining electrodes other than the corresponding electrode for the predetermined integration period; and
a second determination unit configured to determine that the operation object has come in proximity of the corresponding electrode if the first determination unit determines that the input signal of the corresponding electrode is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, and if the integral value generated by the integral operation unit is greater than or equal to the second threshold value.

2. The input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the integral operation unit continuously performs the integration for the integration period regardless of whether or not the input signal of the corresponding electrode is greater than or equal to the first threshold value.

3. An in-vehicle apparatus comprising the input apparatus according to claim 1 .

4. The input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the integral operation unit accumulates a sum of signal values of the remaining input signals corresponding to the remaining electrodes for a predetermined number of cycles so as to generate the integral value.

Assignees

• Alps Alpine Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakajima Satoshi
• Hayasaka Satoshi
• Ishikawa Hiroshi
• Takahashi Toru
• Kitagawa Kohei

Classifications

• G06F2203/04108

  Touchless 2D- 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 without distance measurement in the Z direction · CPC title

• H03K2217/960705

  Safety of capacitive touch and proximity switches, e.g. increasing reliability, fail-safe · CPC title

• H03K17/9622

  using a plurality of detectors, e.g. keyboard · CPC title

• G06F3/044 Primary

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/0418 Primary

  for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment · CPC title