Touchscreen including force sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9600116-B2
Application number	US-201213976797-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2012
Priority date	Dec 20, 2012
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Computing devices and at least one machine readable medium for controlling the functioning of a touch screen are described herein. The computing device includes a touchscreen having one or more force sensors. The computing device also includes first logic to detect a force applied to the touchscreen via the one or more force sensors and second logic to control a functioning of the touchscreen in response to the applied force.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing device, comprising:
a touchscreen having a plurality of force sensors;
first logic to detect a force applied to the touchscreen via the plurality of force sensors; and
second logic to control a functioning of the touchscreen in response to the applied force, wherein the second logic is to control the functioning of the touchscreen based on a position of the applied force calculated from differences between an amount of force sensed by each of the plurality of force sensors, wherein the plurality of force sensors are enabled and a capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is disabled in a low power mode prior to detection of the applied force, and wherein the capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is enabled in response to the applied force.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the second logic is to:
determine whether the applied force exceeds a threshold; and
control the functioning of the touchscreen if the applied force exceeds the threshold.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the second logic is to activate the touchscreen from a deactivated mode in response to the applied force.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second logic is to activate the touchscreen from the deactivated mode if the applied force comprises a continuous force applied to the touchscreen in a specified position.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of force sensors comprises a force sensor positioned at each corner of the touchscreen.

6. The computing device of claim 1 , comprising logic to detect a weight of an object positioned on the touchscreen using the one or more force sensors.

7. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the computing device comprises a mobile phone.

8. The computing device of claim 1 , comprising a touchscreen controller to implement the first logic and the second logic.

9. The computing device of claim 1 , comprising a processor to implement the first logic and the second logic.

10. A computing device, comprising:
a touchscreen having one or more force sensors;
a processor that is configured to execute stored instructions; and
a storage device to stores instructions, the storage device comprising processor executable code that, when executed by the processor, is configured to:
detect a force applied to the touchscreen via a plurality of force sensors; and
control a functioning of the touchscreen in response to the applied force, wherein controlling the functioning of the touchscreen is based on a position of the applied force calculated from differences between an amount of force sensed by each of the plurality of force sensors, wherein the plurality of force sensors are enabled and a capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is disabled in a low power mode prior to detection of the applied force, and wherein the capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is enabled in response to the applied force.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the processor executable code is configured to:
determine whether the applied force exceeds a threshold; and
control the functioning of the touchscreen if the applied force exceeds the threshold.

12. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the computing device comprises a mobile phone.

13. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the processor executable code is configured to activate the touchscreen from a deactivated mode in response to the applied force.

14. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium having instructions stored therein that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:
detect a force applied to a touchscreen of the computing device via a plurality of force sensors for the touchscreen; and
control a functioning of the touchscreen in response to the applied force, wherein controlling the functioning of the touchscreen is based on a position of the applied force calculated from differences between an amount of force sensed by each of the plurality of force sensors, wherein the plurality of force sensors are enabled and a capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is disabled in a low power mode prior to detection of the applied force, and wherein the capacitive sensing capability of the touchscreen is enabled in response to the applied force.

15. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the computing device to:
determine whether the applied force exceeds a threshold; and
control the functioning of the touchscreen if the applied force exceeds the threshold.

16. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the computing device to activate the touchscreen from a deactivated mode in response to the applied force.

17. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of force sensors comprises a force sensor positioned at each corner of the touchscreen.

18. The at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the computing device to detect a weight of an object positioned on the touchscreen using the one or more force sensors.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Tao Jiancheng Johnson
• Wong Hong W

Classifications

• G06F3/044

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/0416 Primary

  Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers · CPC title

• G06F2203/04105

  Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position · CPC title

• G06F3/0414 Primary

  using force sensing means to determine a position · CPC title

• G06F3/04166

  Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving (Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184) · CPC title