Electrostatic Input Apparatus And Input Determination Method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023161433-A1
Application number	US-202318158656-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 24, 2023
Priority date	Aug 24, 2020
Publication date	May 25, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electrostatic input apparatus includes a measuring unit that measures capacitance at a plurality of coordinates of an electrostatic coordinate input unit, a converting unit that obtains a reference value of the capacitance and converts the capacitance to difference values according to a distance between the electrostatic coordinate input unit at the coordinates and a finger, a first coordinate calculating unit that calculates barycentric coordinates of a contact portion from the difference values for the plurality of coordinates, a cycle determining unit that determines whether the difference values at coordinates on a circumference of a circle with a predetermined radius centered on the barycentric coordinates exhibit periodicity of two cycles in one round along the circle, and an operation determining unit that, when the cycle determining unit determines that the difference values exhibit periodicity of two cycles, determines that an input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electrostatic input apparatus comprising:
a measuring unit that measures capacitance at a plurality of coordinates of an electrostatic coordinate input unit; a converting unit that obtains a reference value of the capacitance and subtracts the reference value from the capacitance to convert the capacitance to difference values according to a distance between the electrostatic coordinate input unit at the plurality of coordinates and a finger; a first coordinate calculating unit that calculates barycentric coordinates of a contact portion from the difference values for the plurality of coordinates; a cycle determining unit that determines whether the difference values at coordinates on a circumference of a circle with a predetermined radius centered on the barycentric coordinates exhibit periodicity of two cycles in one round along the circle; and an operation determining unit that, when the cycle determining unit determines that the difference values exhibit periodicity of two cycles, determines that an input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

2 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation determining unit performs Fourier analysis of the difference values on the coordinates on the circumference of the circle, wherein, if magnitude of a vector in which the difference values exhibit two cycles in one round along the circle is larger than a predetermined threshold for the magnitude of the vector, the operation determining unit determines that the input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

3 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation determining unit performs Fourier analyze of measured values of electrodes on the circumference of the circle, wherein, if a ratio of the magnitude of the vector in which the difference values exhibit two cycles in one round along the circle to a direct-current component is higher than a first predetermined ratio, the operation determining unit determines that the input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

4 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein a distance between the fingers is calculated as twice the magnitude of the vector.

5 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein a direction of the vector with respect to a predetermined reference direction is calculated as a direction connecting two fingers.

6 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation determining unit calculates a Fourier-analyzed real part from the difference values at the coordinates on the circumference of the circle with reference to coordinates of a maximum value or a minimum value of the difference values, wherein, if magnitude of the Fourier-analyzed real part in which the difference values exhibit two cycles in one round along the circle is greater than another predetermined threshold, the operation determining unit determines that the input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

7 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation determining unit calculates a ratio of a maximum value to a minimum value of the difference values at the coordinates on the circumference of the circle, wherein if the ratio is higher than a second predetermined ratio, the operation determining unit determines that the input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

8 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the operation determining unit calculates a ratio of a maximum value to a minimum value of the difference values at the coordinates on the circumference of the circle, wherein, if the ratio is higher than a third predetermined ratio and an angle between a first line segment connecting the barycentric coordinates and coordinates of the maximum value and a second line segment connecting the barycentric coordinates and coordinates of the minimum value is larger than π/4 [rad] and smaller than 3π/4 [rad] or larger than 5π/4 [rad] and smaller than 7π/4 [rad], the operation determining unit determines that the input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

9 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an approximate processing unit that approximates, if the cycle determining unit determines the coordinate values exhibit the periodicity of two cycles, an outline of a range in which coordinates at which the difference values exceed a threshold are present to an ellipse; and a second coordinate calculating unit that calculates a position closer to a center of the ellipse than two focal points of the ellipse as central coordinates of two fingers.

10 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the second coordinate calculating unit calculates, on a straight line connecting the two focal points of the ellipse and the center of the ellipse, coordinates of two points away from the center by a second distance obtained by multiplying a first distance between each focal point and the center by a constant less than 1 as the central coordinates of the two fingers.

11 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the constant is obtained from a quadratic function of eccentricity of the ellipse.

12 . The electrostatic input apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the converting unit corrects the difference values by multiplying the difference values by a correction value that corrects the capacitance at the plurality of coordinates of the electrostatic coordinate input unit.

13 . An input determination method executed by a computer, the method comprising:
obtaining a reference value of capacitance at a plurality of coordinates of an electrostatic coordinate input unit and subtracting the reference value from the capacitance to convert the capacitance to difference values according to a distance between the electrostatic coordinate input unit at the plurality of coordinates and a finger; calculating barycentric coordinates of a contact portion from the difference values for the plurality of coordinates; determining whether the difference values at coordinates on a circumference of a circle with a predetermined radius centered on the barycentric coordinates exhibit periodicity of two cycles in one round along the circle; and when it is determined that the difference values exhibit periodicity of two cycles, determining that an input operation using two or more fingers has been performed.

Assignees

• Alps Alpine Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakajima Satoshi
• Hayasaka Satoshi
• Endo Shinichi
• Haryadi Harry
• Watanabe Minoru

Classifications

• G06F3/044

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/0446 Primary

  using a grid-like structure of electrodes in at least two directions, e.g. using row and column electrodes · CPC title

• G06F3/0416 Primary

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title

• G06F3/04186

  Touch location disambiguation · CPC title

• G06F3/041

  Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means · CPC title