Multitouch tactile device with multi frequency and barycentric capacitive detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9453862-B2
Application number	US-201314098407-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2013
Priority date	Dec 5, 2012
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

The general field of the invention is that of touchscreen devices with projected capacitive detection comprising a matrix touchpad comprising a plurality of conducting rows and of conducting columns, the matrix touchpad linked to an emission voltages electronic control system and a reception voltages electronic system. The emission voltages electronic control system generates two periodic emission voltages emitted at two different frequencies. The analysis of the reception voltages, by the reception voltages electronic system, makes it possible to determine the positions of two simultaneous presses on the touchpad, including when the two presses are done on rows or columns that are close. The determination of the presses is performed essentially by calculating the barycenters of the troughs of the reception voltages.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A touchscreen device with projected capacitive detection comprising:
a matrix touchpad comprising a plurality of conducting rows and of conducting columns, the matrix touchpad linked to an emission voltages electronic control system that generates, for each conducting row and for each column, emission voltages, and a reception voltages electronic system that receives and analyzes reception voltages arising from each conducting row and from each column,
wherein the emission voltages electronic control system is configured to generate, for each conducting row and for each conducting column, a first periodic emission voltage at a first frequency and a second periodic emission voltage at a second frequency different from the first frequency:
wherein, in the absence of a press on the touchscreen, the first periodic emission voltage at the first frequency causes the reception voltages to have minimal variations; and wherein the second emission voltage at the second frequency causes the reception voltages to have distinguishable variations dependent on the rows and columns;
wherein the reception voltages electronic system determines, for each row and for each column, the value of a first reception voltage at the first frequency and the value of a second reception voltage at the second frequency; and if the values of the two reception voltages are determined by the reception voltages electronic system to be representative of two simultaneous presses on the touchpad, location of the two presses is performed,
wherein a first analysis determines the minima of the reception voltages for the first frequency and the minima of the reception voltages for the second frequency corresponding to the voltage variations caused by the two presses on the touchscreen; and
a second analysis calculates positions of barycentres of the voltage minima; and
a third analysis determines, based on the positions of the barycentres, the first row and the first column corresponding to the first press and the second row and the second column corresponding to the second press.

2. The touchscreen device according to claim 1 , wherein, when the first row is adjacent to the second row or when the first column is adjacent to the second column in such a way that the two variations in voltage corresponding to the two adjacent rows or to the two adjacent columns form one single minimum, location of the two presses is performed, wherein
the first analysis determines the minima of the reception voltages for the first frequency and the minima of the reception voltages for the second frequency corresponding to the voltage variations of the two presses on the two adjacent rows or on the two adjacent columns;
the second analysis calculates the positions of the barycentres of the two voltage minima;
the third analysis determines, based on the said positions of the two barycentres, the first adjacent row and the second adjacent row or the first adjacent column and the second adjacent column corresponding to the first press or to the second press.

3. The touchscreen device according to claim 1 , wherein the reception voltages electronic system comprises two synchronous demodulators, wherein the first demodulator operates at the first frequency, and the second demodulator operates at the second frequency.

4. The touchscreen device according to claim 1 , wherein the reception voltages electronic system comprises:
a table of the stored values of the reception voltages at the first frequency for each row and each column in the absence of a press;
wherein the reception voltages electronic system performs a comparison analysis establishing, for each row and for each column, the differences between the measured values of the reception voltages and the stored values of the reception voltages so as to determine whether the differences represent a press on the row or on the column.

5. The touchscreen device according to claim 1 , wherein the first frequency is between 100 kHz and 500 kHz and the second frequency is between 500 kHz and 5 MHz.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Coni Philippe
• Rouzes Siegfried

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

• G06F3/0416

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title

• G01R27/2605 Primary

  Measuring capacitance (capacitive sensors G01D5/24) · CPC title

• 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