Patents Examined by Premal Patel
  • Patent number: 8624877
    Abstract: An optical touch display apparatus includes a light-transmitting display panel, a backlight module, a visible light source, an invisible light source, an image sensing apparatus and a processing circuit. The light-transmitting display panel has a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The first surface has a display area. The backlight module is disposed on the second surface. The image sensing apparatus is configured to sense an image above the display area. When a pointer is located in the display area and reflects invisible light which passes through the display area so that the image sensing apparatus senses the invisible light reflected by the pointer, the processing circuit calculates the position of the pointer related to the display area according to the image sensed by the image sensing apparatus. In addition, an optical operation apparatus is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Pixart Imaging Inc.
    Inventors: Hung-Ching Lai, Wu-Chieh Liu, Hui-Hsuan Chen
  • Patent number: 8624858
    Abstract: A method includes: detecting a first touch at a first location on a touch-sensitive display; detecting a second touch at a second location on the touch-sensitive display; and displaying a navigation indicator on the touch-sensitive display in response to detecting the second touch while first touch contact is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Blackberry Limited
    Inventors: Steven Henry Fyke, Jason Tyler Griffin, Kevin Howard Orr, Laura Mahan
  • Patent number: 8619027
    Abstract: A tool tray for an interactive input system comprises a housing having an upper surface defining at least one receptacle sized to receive a tool for interacting with an interactive surface, a sensor configured to detect the presence of the tool within the receptacle and at least one display in communication with the sensor. The display is configured to present a pointer attribute selection screen upon removal of the tool from the receptacle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: SMART Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Doug Hill, Michael Rounding, Michael Trenholm-Boyle, Edward Tse
  • Patent number: 8605073
    Abstract: A transistor whose channel region includes an oxide semiconductor is used as a pull down transistor. The band gap of the oxide semiconductor is 2.0 eV or more, preferably 2.5 eV or more, more preferably 3.0 eV or more. Thus, hot carrier degradation in the transistor can be suppressed. Accordingly, the circuit size of the semiconductor device including the pull down transistor can be made small. Further, a gate of a pull up transistor is made to be in a floating state by switching of on/off of the transistor whose channel region includes an oxide semiconductor. Note that when the oxide semiconductor is highly purified, the off-state current of the transistor can be 1 aA/?m (1×10?18 A/?m) or less. Therefore, the drive capability of the semiconductor device can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsushi Umezaki, Hajime Kimura
  • Patent number: 8605015
    Abstract: Described is a device comprising a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of comparators for computing a respective drive for each pixel of a plurality of pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Syndiant, Inc.
    Inventors: Karl Marion Guttag, Craig Michael Waller, Joshua Abraham Lund, Andrew Ian Russell
  • Patent number: 8599159
    Abstract: Touch panel operation devices, methods, and programs set a touch-off determination time, and determine that the touch-off has occurred if the state at which the touch panel detects the user not touching the touch panel has continued for the set touch-off determination time or more after the touch-off was detected. When the user is touching the touch panel, the devices, methods, and programs acquire a touch coordinate, select an object corresponding to the acquired touch coordinate, and scroll-display the selected object based on a displacement of the acquired touch coordinate. The devices, methods, and programs determine whether the touch coordinate was acquired and displaced just before the touch-off was detected, and if the touch coordinate was acquired and displaced just before the touch-off was detected, set the touch-off determination time to be longer than if the touch coordinate was acquired and not displaced just before the touch-off was detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Aisin AW Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigehiko Sugeda, Koichi Ushida, Kazuyoshi Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8599142
    Abstract: An input device, especially for a vehicle, comprises a display to display an operating element, a touchscreen arranged above the display for recognition of the position of touching of an operating surface of the touchscreen, a force sensor connected to the touchscreen for measurement of the force exerted on the operating surface of the touchscreen, and a control to generate a warning during touching of the operating surface of the touchscreen in the region of display of the operating element or during pressing on the operating surface of the touchscreen in the region of display of the operating element, and to generate a control command assigned to the operating element, if, after generation of the warning, a force that exceeds a force limit value is exerted on the operating surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Volkswagen AG
    Inventors: Michael Prados, Philippe Alessandrini, Wolfgang Bloehs
  • Patent number: 8593438
    Abstract: An electrophoretic display includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an electrophoretic element interposed therebetween, a plurality of scanning lines on an electrophoretic element side surface of the first substrate, a plurality of data lines extending in the crosswise directions of the plurality of scanning lines on the electrophoretic element side surface of the first substrate, a selection transistor connected to one of the scanning lines and one of the data lines, a pixel electrode connected to the selection transistor, and a capacitor with two electrodes, one of the electrode thereof being connected to the selection transistor and the pixel electrode, and the other electrode thereof being connected to one of the scanning lines, wherein a plurality of pixel electrodes are arranged so that a dot density thereof is more than or equal to 200 dpi.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yuko Komatsu, Takashi Sato
  • Patent number: 8593394
    Abstract: A cumulative function of image is obtained according to its gray levels of pixels. This function is then mapped to obtain a backlight modulation function according to a reference line. The backlight brightness provided for different regions of the liquid crystal display are decided by the backlight modulation function while displaying the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: AU Optronics Corporation
    Inventors: Fanf-Cheng Lin, Cheng-Yu Liao, Lin-Yao Liao, Yi-Pai Huang, Te-Mei Wang, Han-Ping D. Shieh
  • Patent number: 8587559
    Abstract: A touch screen comprising at least one nanostructure film and capable of detecting multiple touches occurring at the same time at distinct locations in a plane of the touch screen is described. The touch screen may comprise a sensing layer, a driving layer and/or a shielding layer. At least one of these layers may comprise a nanostructure film, and at least two of these layers may be formed on a common substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shripal Gandhi, David Thomas
  • Patent number: 8581940
    Abstract: A display device includes a display panel having a plurality of pixels, a drive circuit inputting a drive voltage to the plurality of pixels, and a display control device controlling and driving the drive circuit and to which display data is input from an external apparatus, in which a temperature detecting sensor is included. The display control device has a display bit reduction circuit. In a high-temperature operation mode when a temperature equal to or more than a predetermined temperature is detected at the temperature detecting sensor, the display bit reduction circuit ignores bits other than the highest-order bit of the display data input from the external apparatus and sends only the data of the highest-order bit of the display data input from the external apparatus to the drive circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignees: Hitachi Displays, Ltd., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kurihara
  • Patent number: 8576170
    Abstract: A user input device includes a base that has a top surface. Flexibly attached to the base is a joystick. Character indicia are displayed on the base, and each indicium corresponds to a unique joystick position or motion sequence. The user input device has a processor and non-volatile memory that stores machine-readable instructions, that when executed by the processor, transmit a code associated with the unique joystick position or motion sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Steven Alan Cordes, Debra C. Leach, Debra Ann Loussedes, Christopher Edward Obszamy
  • Patent number: 8576198
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a touch panel structure formed by an anti-scratch surface layer and a capacitive sensor layer, and a transparent lamination layer is used for pasting the two into a panel. The capacitive sensor layer includes an X-axis first transparent conductive layer and a Y-axis second transparent conductive layer formed on both sides of a transparent plastic carrier to provide a touch panel structure having the advantages of a relatively low material cost, a light weight, an easy manufacturing and molding, a better lamination yield and a flexible and break-free feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: Applied Vacuum Coating Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hsueh-Chih Chiang, Shih-Liang Chou, Jyh-An Chen, Ming-Hung Hsieh
  • Patent number: 8576211
    Abstract: A disclosed electronic element includes: a substrate; a first electrode layer formed on a portion of the substrate; an insulating layer formed on the first electrode layer; a conductive layer formed on the insulating layer formed on an area where the first electrode layer is formed; a second electrode layer formed on one area where the first electrode layer on the substrate is not formed; a third electrode layer formed on the other area where neither the first electrode layer on the substrate nor the second electrode layer is formed; and a semiconductor layer formed so as to cover between the conductive layer and the second electrode layer and to cover between the conductive layer and the third electrode layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kondo
  • Patent number: 8558817
    Abstract: An optical touch-control includes: four light-guide modules cooperating to define a touch-control zone, each of the light-guide modules including a light-guide strip that has a light-entry surface oriented toward a respective one of first and second ones of corners defined by the light-guide modules, and a light-exit surface that is oriented toward the touch-control zone; two light-emitting modules disposed in the first one of the corners and two light-emitting modules disposed in the second one of the corners, each of the light-emitting modules being oriented toward the light-entry surface of a corresponding one of the light-guide modules, light that enters each of the light-guide modules via the light-entry surface thereof exiting from the light-guide module via the light-exit surface thereof; and three image acquisition modules disposed respectively in the first and second ones of the corners and a remaining one of the corners, and oriented toward the touch-control zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Genius Electronic Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kuo-Wen Chang, Min-Wei Lee
  • Patent number: 8558755
    Abstract: A system distributes data in a robust manner to a large scale LED display formed of a number of display panels. The system includes a plurality of data hubs wherein each display panel is connected to at least two data hubs to receive redundant pixel data for each pixel of the panel. Each data hub is further connected to at least two panels of the display to provide pixel data for each pixel of the panels to which the data hub is connected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Inventors: Hamid Kharrati, Robert J. Sefton, Sheldon Lee Black, Daniel S. Kline, Anthony D. Barghini
  • Patent number: 8558807
    Abstract: A transparent touch panel comprises a first axis sensing layer, a second axis sensing layer and an insulating layer between the first axis sensing layer and the second axis sensing layer; the first axis sensing layer and second axis sensing layer being transparent conductive films, and the insulating layer being transparent insulated film. In each of the first axis sensing layer and second axis sensing layer, first insulating wires serve to delimit a plurality of electrode areas and a plurality of waste etching areas; and signal conductive wires serve to delimit a dummy pattern in the waste etching areas; the electrodes areas include a plurality of sensing electrodes and/or a plurality of signal conductive wires and the dummy pattern includes a plurality of small sub-areas which are disconnected to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Inventor: Teh-Zheng Lin
  • Patent number: 8553007
    Abstract: A handheld electronic device includes a housing having a surface; a first input component having input members disposed external to the surface; a second touch sensitive input component disposed about the input members, the touch sensitive input component being separate and distinct from the input members and the first input component and being structured to provide one of: a contact point with respect to the surface responsive to actuation of a first number of the input members, and a number of responses responsive to actuation of a second number of the input members. A processor cooperates with the first input component and the touch sensitive input component to determine if a plurality of the input members are actuated contemporaneously and to output a representation of a single one of the input members based upon one of: the contact point, and the number of responses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Vahid Moosavi, Steven H. Fyke, Alexander Kornilovsky, John Jong-Suk Lee, Roman Rak
  • Patent number: 8552988
    Abstract: Viewing devices are disclosed herein. One embodiment of a viewing device is a digital camera having at least one function. And embodiment of the digital camera comprises a touch pad, wherein in which a stylus that is moved relative to the touch pad is detectable by the digital camera. The speed at which the function is performed corresponds to the speed that the stylus is moved relative to the touch pad.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Amy E. Battles, Norman Conrad Pyle, Mark John Bianchi, Daniel J. Byrne, Shanshan Li
  • Patent number: 8547371
    Abstract: Prior to increasing the voltage level of an input signal to be sampled in a step-by-step manner and writing a signal voltage Vsig at a desired voltage level, a precharge is performed which writes a precharge voltage Vpre, lower than the signal voltage Vsig, so as to apply the same voltage Vpre to the gate of a drive transistor in advance. This not only provides a reduced gate-to-source voltage of the drive transistor at the time of writing of the signal voltage Vsig but also extends a mobility correction time required for a mobility correction operation. The extension of the mobility correction time required for the mobility correction operation ensures a relatively smaller variation in the correction time, thus suppressing the variation in brightness. The extension also permits a write pulse to be set to the optimal pulse width.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Takao Tanikame, Yukihito Iida, Tetsuo Minami, Katsuhide Ucnino