Classifying input objects interacting with a capacitive button

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304643-B2
Application number	US-201414313711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2014
Priority date	Jun 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention generally provide an input device that includes a zero-dimensional button that detects whether an input object is proximate to a sensing region. However, different input objects may provide similar responses which may prevent the input device from accurately determining whether the user actually intended to activate the button. In one embodiment, the input device drives a capacitive sensing signal onto a sensor electrode in the capacitive button and measures at least two resulting signals. The input device then derives capacitance values based on the two resulting signals and uses a ratio between the capacitance values to classifying the interaction with the input object. This ratio enables the input device to distinguish between events that have similar capacitive responses and would otherwise be indistinguishable if only one resulting signal were measured.

First claim

We claim:

1. An input device, comprising:
a first plurality of sensor electrodes;
a second plurality of sensor electrodes;
a processing system communicatively coupled to the first and second plurality of sensor electrodes, the processing system configured to:
operate the first plurality of sensor electrodes to detect positional information for an input object in a first sensing region;
operate the second plurality of sensor electrodes to detect a presence of the input objec…

Assignees

• Synaptics Inc

Inventors

• Jordan Joel C
• Schwartz Adam

Classifications

• G06F2203/04106

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/044 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01B7/003

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01B2210/58

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/0442 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic