Abstract: A touch sensor comprises a substrate capable of propagating acoustic waves and includes a first surface having a touch sensitive region. A first sidewall intersects the first surface along a first edge. The first edge is configured to propagate a first acoustic wave along the first edge. The first acoustic wave may be a one-dimensional edge wave. A wave converter converts the first acoustic wave to a second acoustic wave, and the first surface is configured to propagate the second acoustic wave across the touch sensitive region.

Abstract: A resistive touchscreen having a programmable display, such as an emissive display matrix of organic light-emitting diodes, or a reflective electronic paper display, built into the coversheet. The touchscreen may be of any resistive type, including 4-wire, 5-wire, and diode 3-wire. A touch/display system is thus provided in which there is little or no degradation of the displayed image due to image transmission through the internal touch sensor components, and in which the internal touch sensor components may be constructed of opaque materials.

Abstract: Two groups of inclined lines, which are included in a spurious wave scattering means, are formed at opposite angles with respect to each other in the vicinity of an upper edge of a substrate. The angles of the inclined lines are such that they are close to perpendicular toward the central portion of the substrate, and gradually decrease toward the edges thereof. In a similar manner, two other groups inclined lines, which are also included in the spurious wave scattering means, are formed at opposite angles with respect to each other, with gradually changing angles. The spurious waves that reach these regions are diffuse by the inclined lines, so that they are not propagated to converters (sensors). Three rectangular spurious wave scattering means, formed by inclined lines, inclined at angles other than 45°, also function to diffuse and eliminate spurious waves that propagate along the front surface of the substrate.

Abstract: An acoustic touchscreen having a substrate capable of propagating acoustic waves, the substrate having a touch-sensitive area, and an array of acoustically reflective elements lying in or on the substrate are positioned to transmit or receive acoustic signals into or out of the touch-sensitive area, the elements having a focusing shape that provides waveguide functionality, i.e., focusing the acoustic wave energy to a narrow area along a center line of the array axis, without requiring a further waveguide core structure.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to touch sensors with arrays of thin-film conductive polymer switches (e.g., diodes or transistors) that can be used to selectively apply voltage gradients across a resistive touch region of the touch sensor substrate. Touches on the touch sensor can then be sensed by measuring the voltage at the touch location on the resistive touch region.

Abstract: A touch sensor comprising an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface; a plurality of acoustic wave path forming systems, each generating a set of incrementally varying paths through said transmissive medium; and a receiver, receiving signals representing said sets of waves, a portion of each set overlapping temporally or physically by propagating in said transmissive medium along axes which are not orthogonal. The waves may also be of differing wave modes. The receiver system may include a phase, waveform or amplitude sensitive system.

Abstract: The present inventions are directed to touch sensors with improved topological equivalence between an equipotential space and a Cartesian space to which the equipotential space will be mapped. The touch sensor comprises a substrate with a touch region, and a set of electrodes that are electrically coupled to the touch region. The touch sensor further comprises a plurality of resistive band segments that frames the touch region. The electrodes are located between the resistive band segments. Each resistive band segment has a resistivity that is intermediate between the resistivity of the electrodes and the resistivity of the touch region, thereby providing a transition between the low resistivity electrodes and the high resistivity touch region, and improving the topological equivalence within the corners of the touch region. At least one of the band segments has a non-uniform linear resistance to provide further improvement to the topological equivalence.

Abstract: A touch sensor comprising an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface; a plurality of acoustic wave path forming systems, each generating a set of incrementally varying paths through the transmissive medium; and a receiver, receiving signals representing the sets of waves, a portion of each set overlapping temporally or physically by propagating in the transmissive medium along axes which are not orthogonal. The waves may also be of differing wave modes. The receiver system may include a phase, waveform or amplitude sensitive system.

Abstract: Apparatus for rapid insertion of hose fittings into the ends of hoses, having a hand-controlled fitting installation mechanism movable along a travel bar, the mechanism having a vertical paid used to push the hose fitting into the end of the hose; a separate attached hose mounting platform for holding the hose end above and parallel to the bar holding the hand-controlled mechanism; and a hose locking lever attached to the top of the hose mounting platform.

Abstract: An acoustic touchscreen (1a) has transmitting transducers (23a, 23b) for generating acoustic signals which are deflected across a touch-sensitive area (2) by an array 13 of partially acoustically reflective elements 14. A touch on the touch-sensitive area causes a perturbation in the acoustic signals. After traversing the touch-sensitive area, the acoustic signals are redirected by another array 13 of partially acoustically reflective elements 14, towards receiving transducers (26a, 26b), where the signals (and any perturbations) are sensed. To accommodate touchscreens having narrow border regions (15a), the acoustic signals are propagated across the border regions using acoustic waveguides (18). The waveguide confines the acoustic signals to traveling along a narrow path width, but yet permit them to be deflected across the touch-sensitive area. In this manner, the transducers and reflective elements can in turn be of narrower construction and can fit within narrow border regions.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adapting an acoustic touchscreen controller to the operating frequency requirements of a specific touchscreen are provided. The adaptive controller can either utilize look-up tables to achieve the desired output frequency or the it can use a multi-step process in which it first determines the frequency requirements of the touchscreen, and then adjusts the burst frequency characteristics, the receiver circuit center frequency, or both in accordance with the touchscreen requirements. In one embodiment, the adaptive controller compensates for global frequency mismatch errors. In this embodiment a digital multiplier is used to modify the output of a crystal reference oscillator. The reference oscillator output is used to control the frequency of the signal from the receiving transducers and/or to generate the desired frequency of the tone burst sent to the transmitting transducers.

Abstract: A touch sensor comprising an acoustic wave transmissive medium having a surface; a plurality of acoustic wave path forming systems, each generating a set of incrementally varying paths through said transmissive medium; and a receiver, receiving signals representing said sets of waves, a portion of each set overlapping temporally or physically by propagating in said transmissive medium along axes which are not orthogonal. The waves may also be of differing wave modes. The receiver system may include a phase, waveform or amplitude sensitive system.

Abstract: A touch screen includes a transmitter capable of delivering an acoustic signal to the touch screen and a receiver adapted to detect acoustic signals on the touch screen and deliver a first signal representative of the detected acoustic signals. An automatic gain control amplifier has an input, output, and control terminal, and is adapted to receive the first signal on the input terminal and deliver an amplified version of the first signal on the output terminal. The control terminal is adapted to receive a control signal that varies the gain of the amplifier. An analog to digital converter is adapted to receive the amplified first signal and deliver a digital representation thereof. A first circuit is adapted to receive one of the amplified first signal and the digital signal, determine the difference between the received signal and a preselected value, and deliver a control signal to the control input of the amplifier. The control signal has a magnitude responsive to the determined difference.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for discriminating against false touches in a touchscreen system is provided. The system is designed to confirm a touch registered by one touch sensor with another touch sensor, preferably of a different sensor type, prior to acting upon the touch (i.e., sending touch coordinates to the operating system). If the touch registered by the first touch sensor is not confirmed by the second touch sensor, the touch is invalidated. Thus the strengths of one type of sensor are used to overcome the deficiencies of another type of sensor. In one aspect, the secondary touch sensor comprises a force sensor to discriminate between true and false touches on other types of touch sensors, such as contaminants on optical and surface acoustic wave sensors, noise or weak signals on capacitive sensors, etc. The force sensor may be a simple one-element system that merely indicates that a touch has occurred or a multi-element system that can provide confirming or supplementary coordinate data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for discriminating against false touches in a touchscreen system is provided. The system is designed to confirm a touch registered by one touch sensor with another touch sensor, preferably of a different sensor type, prior to acting upon the touch (i.e., sending touch coordinates to the operating system). If the touch registered by the first touch sensor is not confirmed by the second touch sensor, the touch is invalidated. Thus the strengths of one type of sensor are used to overcome the deficiencies of another type of sensor. This system is particularly well suited to meet the demands of an outdoor or semi-outdoor application. In one embodiment, one or more force sensors are used as the false touch sensor and a projective-capacitive sensor is used as the position coordinate determining sensor. In another embodiment, a projective-capacitive sensor is used as the false touch sensor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adapting an acoustic touchscreen controller to the operating frequency requirements of a specific touchscreen are provided. The adaptive controller can either utilize look-up tables to achieve the desired output frequency or the it can use a multi-step process in which it first determines the frequency requirements of the touchscreen, and then adjusts the burst frequency characteristics, the receiver circuit center frequency, or both in accordance with the touchscreen requirements. In one embodiment, the adaptive controller compensates for global frequency mismatch errors. In this embodiment a digital multiplier is used to modify the output of a crystal reference oscillator. The reference oscillator output is used to control the frequency of the signal from the receiving transducers and/or to generate the desired frequency of the tone burst sent to the transmitting transducers.

Abstract: An acoustic touch panel or “touch screen” utilizes acoustic waves within a sensor substrate to determine the position of touch. The substrate is made of a temperable glass having an attenuation coefficient of less than or equal to about 0.6 dB/cm as determined at the substrate surface for 5.53 MHz Rayleigh waves as measured by the slope of a plot of amplitude versus distance for a signal through a pair of facing 0.5-inch wide wedge transducers mounted on a sample of the glass type under test having sufficient thickness to support Rayleigh wave propagation. An acoustic touch panel with a tempered low-acoustic-loss glass substrate. This makes possible large tempered acoustic touch panels. A glass substrate of the touch sensor comprises SiO2 as the main component with a total content of Na2O, CaO and MgO of 20% by weight or less and a total content of Al2O3, ZrO2, TiO2, B2O3, Y2O3, SnO2, PbO2, In2O3 and K2O of 5% by weight or more.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a multilayer substrate for use in touchscreen and touch sensor applications. The substrate, including a microsheet, a polymer sheet, and a plate supports the propagation of acoustic waves, including Love waves and Rayleigh-like waves. The microsheet and plate may be fabricated from glass, metal, or other suitable materials depending on the desired application for the touchscreen. The polymer sheet may be fabricated from polystyrene, polyacrylates, polyether sulfones, or polycyclic olefins. The disclosed touchscreen substrates are thin but durable and have increased touch sensitivity with decreased sensitivity to water and other surface contaminants.

Abstract: An acoustic touch panel or “touch screen” utilizes acoustic waves within a sensor substrate to determine the position of touch. The substrate is made of a temperable glass having an attenuation coefficient of less than or equal to about 0.6 dB/cm as determined at the substrate surface for 5.53 MHz Rayleigh waves as measured by the slope of a plot of amplitude versus distance for a signal through a pair of facing 0.5-inch wide wedge transducers mounted on a sample of the glass type under test having sufficient thickness to support Rayleigh wave propagation. An acoustic touch panel with a tempered low-acoustic-loss glass substrate. This makes possible large tempered acoustic touch panels.

Abstract: An improved touchscreen utilizing two sets of electrodes that are fabricated in a single plane is provided. The individual electrodes of each set of electrodes are formed from a continuous length of a conductive material. Suitable electrode materials include fine wire and deposited conductive coatings. The overall electrode pattern is such that there is no overlap of electrodes, thus eliminating the need for insulating layers and/or coatings between electrodes. Although a variety of electrode patterns can be used, preferably the pattern is comprised of a plurality of approximately triangularly shaped electrodes, the pattern such that the base of one triangularly shaped electrode is adjacent to the apex of the next triangularly shaped electrode.