Patents Examined by Cory A Almeida
  • Patent number: 10216347
    Abstract: A multi-layer conductive coating is substantially transparent to visible light, contains at least one conductive layer comprising silver that is sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers, and may be used as an electrode and/or conductive trace in a capacitive touch panel. The multi-layer conductive coating may contain a dielectric layer(s), and may be used in applications such as capacitive touch panels for controlling showers, appliances, vending machines, electronics, electronic devices, and/or the like. In certain example embodiments, different electrodes of the touch panel may have different resistance, with the respective silver-based structures of various electrodes being different from one another to provide different resistance for different electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Guardian Glass, LLC
    Inventors: Alexey Krasnov, Willem Den Boer, Jason Blush, Eric W. Akkashian
  • Patent number: 10209941
    Abstract: Provided are a mobile terminal having a plurality of display areas and a control method thereof. The mobile terminal includes a main body having a front surface, a side surface, and a rear surface, a display disposed on the front surface and extending from the front surface to the side surface, a wireless communication unit wirelessly communicating with an external device, and a controller receiving identification information of the external device in response to recognition of the external device, and controlling information output on the touch screen on the basis of the received identification information, wherein, on the basis of the identification information of the external device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Jihyung Yoo, Minjae Park
  • Patent number: 10209813
    Abstract: A self-capacitive touch sensor panel configured to have a portion of both the touch and display functionality integrated into a common layer is provided. The touch sensor panel includes a layer with circuit elements that can switchably operate as both touch circuitry and display circuitry such that during a touch mode of the device the circuit elements operate as touch circuitry and during a display mode of the device the circuit elements operate as display circuitry. The touch mode and display mode can be time multiplexed. By integrating the touch hardware and display hardware into common layers, savings in power, weight and thickness of the device can be realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Weijun Yao, Wei Hsin Yao, Yingxuan Li, Bingrui Yang, Marduke Yousefpor, Abbas Jamshidi-Roudbari, Ahmad Al-Dahle
  • Patent number: 10204577
    Abstract: A driving method is provided to drive an LCD panel having rows of pixels includes obtaining source data signals of a plurality of frames for the LCD panel; inputting a source data signal of one frame of the plurality of frames; and inverting polarity of the source data signal of the one frame before scanning sequentially the rows of pixels. The driving method also includes configuring at least one of timing of the source data signal and timing of scanning a first row of the rows of pixels to cause a time overlap between an actual scanning time of the first row and a time period when the source data signal is at a threshold value to be no less than an original scanning time of the first row; scanning the first row of the rows of pixels; and scanning rest of the rows of pixels to complete displaying the one frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignees: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO. LTD., BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Liguang Deng, Zhen Chen, Hyungkyu Kim, Moyu Zhu, Yingming Liu, Jun Cheng, Ming Zhai
  • Patent number: 10198070
    Abstract: A gaze tracking system, leaving a low power mode in response to an activation signal, captures an initial burst of eye pictures in short time by restricting the image area of a sensor, with the purpose of enabling an increased frame rate. Subsequent eye pictures are captured at normal frame rate. The first gaze point value is computed memorylessly based on the initial burst of eye pictures and no additional imagery, while subsequent values may be computed recursively by taking into account previous gaze point values or information from previous eye pictures. The restriction of the image area may be guided by a preliminary overview picture captured using the same or a different sensor. From the gaze point values, the system may derive a control signal to be supplied to a computer device with a visual display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Tobii AB
    Inventors: Mårten Skogö, Anders Olsson, John Mikael Elvesjö, Aron Yu
  • Patent number: 10198081
    Abstract: A terminal device includes: a sensing unit to generate a motion change information by detecting motions of the terminal device and sensing a motion change of the terminal device; a gesture determiner to compare the motion change information with pre-specified gestures and generate a particular gesture information corresponding to the sensed motion change of the terminal device; an application controller to identify at least one activated application in an active state; and an execution unit to execute preset commands corresponding to the particular gesture information for respective activated applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: SK TELECOM CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Seunghyeon Cho
  • Patent number: 10198120
    Abstract: Disclosed is a touch window including a substrate including a first region in which a touch is sensed and a second region provided at an edge of the first region, a sensing electrode to sense a touch position of the first region, and a wire connected with the sensing electrode. The wire includes comprises a first wire part provided in the first region and a second wire part provided in the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: LG INNOTEK CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Eun Jung Jeon, Seung Jin Kim, Jong Sun Kim, Kyoung Jong Yoo, Byung Youl Moon, Dong Mug Seong, Jun Sik Shin, Yu Hong Jeon, Chan Kyu Koo
  • Patent number: 10198121
    Abstract: To provide a projected capacitive touch switch panel having sensor units that are easy to adjust and that minimally reflect visible light, and furthermore having adequate environment-resistance properties. A projected capacitive touch switch panel 1 comprising a glass substrate 2 that has a sensor unit 3 for performing detection along the X direction, and a glass substrate 4 that has a sensor unit 5 for performing detection along the Y direction, in which: the two glass substrates are laminated, and the sensor units are sandwiched between the glass substrates so as to face each other; each of the sensor units has a sensor electrode comprising an Al thin film, and a blackened film including at least one metal selected from Cr, Mo, and W.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignees: NORITAKE CO., LIMITED, NORITAKE ITRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hitoshi Sakuda, Isamu Kanda, Tadami Maeda
  • Patent number: 10175808
    Abstract: An in-cell touch screen panel, a driving method thereof and a display device. A plurality of sub-pixels are grouped into sub-pixel groups, each of which includes at least two sub-pixels, and cathode layers of different sub-pixel groups are independent of one another. The cathode layers are reused as self-capacitance electrodes, and a driving chip determines a touch position by detecting a change in capacitance of the cathode layer, thereby achieving touch control functionality. The driving chip outputs, in a fourth phase, signals to respective cathode layers and signal terminals of each sub-pixel circuit, each of the signals is a superposition of the signal output in a third phase with a touch scanning signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignees: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD., BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shengji Yang, Xue Dong, Hailin Xue, Haisheng Wang, Xiaochuan Chen, Hongjuan Liu, Tuo Sun, Lifei Ma, Wen Sun, Rui Xu, Lei Wang
  • Patent number: 10175784
    Abstract: A control device includes: a receiver for receiving first information regarding the movement of a casing, and second information regarding whether to reflect the first information on the movement of coordinate values; a storage unit for storing a whole-screen region including a real-screen region, and a virtual-screen region set around the real-screen region; a generator for generating the coordinate values within the whole-screen region based on the first information; a switcher for switching a first state in which the coordinate values are movable, and a second state in which the coordinate values are immovable, based on the second information; a determining unit for determining which of the real-screen region or the virtual-screen region the coordinate values belong to; and a coordinate-value control unit for controlling the coordinate values so as to move the coordinate values within the virtual-screen region to the position of predetermined coordinate values within the real-screen region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kunihito Sawai, Kazuyuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 10168835
    Abstract: A touch-sensitive apparatus comprises a first subset of components on a first end of the touch surface, and a second subset of components on a second end which is opposite to and parallel with the first end. The components include emitters and detectors, each emitter being operable for propagating a diverging energy beam (e.g. radiation) across the touch surface inside the panel, and each detector being operable for detecting transmitted energy from at least two emitters. The components in at least one of the first and second subsets are systematically arranged in spatially separate groups along at least one of the first and second ends, so as to achieve a reduced spacing and/or an increased uniformity of the transmission paths along a center line between the first and second ends compared to an equidistant arrangement of all components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: FlatFrog Laboratories AB
    Inventors: Mats Petter Wallander, Håkan Bergström
  • Patent number: 10152911
    Abstract: A power supply circuit includes a comparison circuit, a preset value setting circuit, a reset detecting circuit and a reset signal generating circuit. The comparison circuit compares a first and second voltage to output a comparing result. The first and second voltages correspond to a first and second preset value, respectively. When the comparison result shows that the second voltage is greater than the first voltage, the preset value setting circuit outputs the second preset value; otherwise it outputs a third preset value, which is greater than the first preset value. The reset detecting circuit determines whether the operation voltage of the power supply circuit drops to the preset value outputted by the preset value setting circuit, and outputs a control signal accordingly. The reset signal generating circuit determines whether to output a reset signal for resetting gate lines in a display panel based on the control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: AU OPTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wei-Chin Tsai, Chun-Kuei Wen
  • Patent number: 10139959
    Abstract: A method of calibrating a force sensor that includes an input surface and an array of sensing elements. The input has a number of test locations and is deformable under applied force. The force sensor is mounted in a predetermined test orientation. For each test location of the plurality of test locations on the input surface of the force sensor a predetermined test force to the test location. An element calibration value is measured for each sensing element of the array of sensing elements of the force sensor. An (x, y) deformation map of the input surface of the force sensor corresponding to the application of the predetermined test force to the test location is determined based on the measured element calibration values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Butler, Martin P. Grunthaner, Peter W. Richards, Romain A. Teil, Sinan Filiz
  • Patent number: 10133371
    Abstract: A panel includes a light-transmissive main body including an upper portion and a plurality of side portions contiguous with the upper portion, a recess being formed at a border between an inner surface of the upper portion and an inner surface of at least one of the plurality of side portions, and a light-blocking part formed in the recess and on an inner surface of the main body except a design part that transmits light, the light-blocking part being configured to block light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKAI RIKA DENKI SEISAKUSHO
    Inventor: Takeshi Fujimoto
  • Patent number: 10088967
    Abstract: A projected capacitive touch panel, including a substrate, a silver-inclusive transparent conductive coating which forms a plurality of row electrodes, a plurality of column electrodes, and a plurality of conductive traces, and a signal processor which sequentially measures a capacitance between each of row electrodes and an adjacent column electrode. The row electrodes, the plurality of column electrodes, and the plurality of traces are on a plane substantially parallel to the substrate. Each of the row electrodes is electrically connected to the signal processor by one of the plurality of conductive traces. The plurality of traces are at least partially substantially parallel to the column electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Guardian Glass, LLC
    Inventors: Willem Den Boer, Alexey Krasnov
  • Patent number: 10082900
    Abstract: A display device and a method for driving the same are provided by the present disclosure. The display device includes a display panel and a touch panel. The method includes: applying a horizontal synchronizing signal to a plurality of scanning lines of the display panel; and applying a touch driving signal to a plurality of touch driving signal lines of the touch panel; an orthographic projection of the scanning line receiving the horizontal synchronizing signal onto the display panel does not overlap an orthographic projection of the touch driving signal line receiving the touch driving signal onto the display panel at least within a predetermined time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2018
    Assignees: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD., CHENGDU BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Haodi Liu, Benyin Ye, Zihe Zhang, Liang Li
  • Patent number: 10078409
    Abstract: Certain example embodiments relate to capacitive touch panels. First and second glass substrates are substantially parallel and spaced apart from one another. At least one multi-layer transparent conductive coating (TCC) is patterned into electrodes and located between the first and second substrates. The TCC(s) include(s) at least one conductive layer including silver, a dielectric layer including zinc oxide under and directly contacting the conductive layer including silver, and a dielectric layer(s) including tin oxide or silicon nitride over the conductive layer including silver. Processing circuitry electrically connects to the electrodes and measures an aspect of the electrodes' capacitance. A laminate material is located between the first and second glass substrates. The TCC(s), when blanket deposited, may have a visible transmission of at least 88%, a sheet resistances of no more than 10 ohms per square, and a haze of no more than 0.5%. Mutual and self-capacitance designs are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: Guardian Glass, LLC
    Inventors: Vijayen S. Veerasamy, Jason Blush, Eric W. Akkashian, Willem Den Boer, Alexey Krasnov
  • Patent number: 10073576
    Abstract: A multi-layer conductive coating is substantially transparent to visible light, contains at least one conductive layer comprising silver that is sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers, and may be used as an electrode and/or conductive trace in a capacitive touch panel. The multi-layer conductive coating may contain a dielectric layer of or including zirconium oxide (e.g., ZrO2) and/or silicon nitride, and may be used in applications such as capacitive touch panels for controlling showers, appliances, vending machines, electronics, electronic devices, and/or the like. The touch panel may further include a functional film(s) which may be one or more of: an index-matching film, an antiglare film, an anti-fingerprint film, and anti-microbial film, a scratch resistant film, and/or an antireflective (AR) film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: Guardian Glass, LLC
    Inventors: Willem Den Boer, Alexey Krasnov, Jason Blush, Eric W. Akkashian
  • Patent number: 10073519
    Abstract: A mobile device and operating method provides information by automatically recognizing a user intention. The mobile device includes a sensor configured to sense a user's eye movement, an event detector configured to detect an event by inferring a user intention based on the user's eye movement, an application function executor configured to execute a function of an application in response to the detected event. The mobile device may further include a display configured to display results of function execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Min-Young Mun, Jae-Mo Sung
  • Patent number: 10031595
    Abstract: A control device includes: a receiver for receiving first information regarding the movement of a casing, and second information regarding whether to reflect the first information on the movement of coordinate values; a storage unit for storing a whole-screen region including a real-screen region, and a virtual-screen region set around the real-screen region; a generator for generating the coordinate values within the whole-screen region based on the first information; a switcher for switching a first state in which the coordinate values are movable, and a second state in which the coordinate values are immovable, based on the second information; a determining unit for determining which of the real-screen region or the virtual-screen region the coordinate values belong to; and a coordinate-value control unit for controlling the coordinate values so as to move the coordinate values within the virtual-screen region to the position of predetermined coordinate values within the real-screen region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kunihito Sawai, Kazuyuki Yamamoto