Method and device for detecting touch input

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9323360-B2
Application number	US-201013391288-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 20, 2010
Priority date	Aug 21, 2009
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Provided is a touch input detection method that detects a contact or approach of a touch input means ( 90 ) such as a finger of a human body, an electric conductor or a touch pen on a touch panel ( 10 ) and produces an input signal. The touch input detection method includes the steps of: (a) detecting a first touch input; (b) calculating an area where the first touch input has been detected; (c) detecting a second touch input that occurs at a predetermined time interval after occurrence of the first touch input; (d) calculating an area where the second touch input has been detected; and (e) judging a change in the areas from the first touch input to the second touch input to thus produce a zooming signal. Accordingly, a zooming signal is produced according to a change in an area of a touch input, to thus implement a zoom gesture very simply, to also realize the zoom gesture with only one finger, and to thereby achieve a touch input operation compactly.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A touch input detection method that detects a contact or approach of a touch input means such as a finger of a human body, an electric conductor or a touch pen on a touch panel and produces an input signal, the touch input detection method comprising the steps of:
(a) detecting a first touch input;
(b) calculating an area where the first touch input has been detected;
(c) detecting a second touch input that occurs at a predetermined time interval after occurrence of the first touch input;
(d) calculating an area where the second touch input has been detected; and
(e) calculating a change in the areas both within more than one touch cell and within one touch cell from the first touch input to the second touch input to thus produce a zooming signal,
wherein the zooming signal that magnifies or reduces a screen on the basis of a central point of the area where the first touch input has occurred is produced,
wherein the touch panel comprises a plurality of touch cells that detect a touch input individually are arranged in a matrix form,
wherein each touch cell comprises at least one switching element for supply and interception of a position detection signal and a conductive pad that is connected to the gate terminal of the switching element, and
wherein (a) detecting a first touch input and (c) detecting a second touch input is performed by detecting a signal that is generates due to charging and discharging of a virtual capacitor that is formed between the touch input means and the conductive pad to thus detect a touch input.

2. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , wherein at the step (e), a zoom-in signal is produced when the area of the second touch input increases in comparison with that of the first touch input, and a zoom-out signal is produced when the area of the second touch input decreases in comparison with that of the first touch input.

3. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , wherein at the step (e), a zoom-out signal is produced when the area of the second touch input increases in comparison with that of the first touch input, and a zoom-in signal is produced when the area of the second touch input decreases in comparison with that of the first touch input.

4. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , wherein at the step (e), a change in the areas from the first touch input to the second touch input is calculated in the case that the first touch input and the second touch input continuously occur to thereby produce a zooming signal.

5. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , wherein at the step (e), a change in the areas from the first touch input to the second touch input is calculated in the case that the first touch input and the second touch input intermittently occur to thereby produce a zooming signal.

6. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , wherein the touch panel is a touch panel where a plurality of touch cells that detect a touch input individually are arranged in a matrix form, and calculation of the areas at the steps (b) and (d) is achieved by adding the number of the touch cells where the touch inputs have been detected.

7. The touch input detection method of claim 1 , the calculation of the areas at the steps (b) and (d) is achieved by detecting magnitude of electrostatic capacity of the touch cells where the touch inputs have been detected.

8. A touch input detection device that detects a contact or approach of a touch input means such as a finger of a human body, an electric conductor or a touch pen on a touch panel and produces an input signal, the touch input detection device comprising:
a touch input detector that detects a touch input when the touch input occurs on the touch panel;
an area calculator that calculates an area of a corresponding touch input region at a point in place where the touch input has been detected when the touch input detector has detected the touch input; and
a zooming signal generator that calculates a change in the area of the touch input both within more than one touch cell and within one touch cell that has been calculated in the area calculator according to lapse of time,
wherein the zooming signal that magnifies or reduces a screen on the basis of a central point of the area where the first touch input out of the touch inputs involved in the change ratio in the size of the area has occurred is produced,
wherein the touch panel is a touch panel where a plurality of touch cells are arranged in a matrix form,
wherein each touch cell comprises at least one switching element for supply and interception of a position detection signal and a conductive pad that is connected to the gate terminal of the switching element, and
wherein the touch input detector detects a signal that is generates due to charging and discharging of a virtual capacitor that is formed between the touch input means and the conductive pad to thus detect a touch input.

9. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the zooming signal generator produces a zoom-in signal when the area of the touch input region increases according to lapse of time, and produces a zoom-out signal when the area of the touch input region decreases according to lapse of time.

10. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the zooming signal generator produces a zoom-out signal when the area of the touch input region increases according to lapse of time, and produces a zoom-in signal when the area of the touch input region decreases according to lapse of time.

11. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the touch panel is installed in the upper portion of a display device.

12. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the touch panel is installed in a display device as any one substrate of substrates that are included in the display device.

13. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the touch panel is a touch panel where a plurality of touch cells are arranged in a matrix form, and the area calculator calculates the area of the touch input region by adding the number of the touch cells where the touch inputs have been detected.

14. The touch input detection device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the area calculator detects magnitude of an electrostatic capacity of the touch cell where the touch input has been detected to thus calculate an area of the touch input region.

Assignees

• Lee Sung Ho

Inventors

• Lee Sung Ho

Classifications

• G06F2203/04104

  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 title

• G06F2203/04808

  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 title

• G06F3/04883 Primary

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• G06F2203/04806

  Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation · CPC title

• G06F3/041 Primary

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