With Alignment Or Calibration Capability (i.e., Parallax Problem) Patents (Class 345/178)
  • Patent number: 8194043
    Abstract: A mobile communication terminal includes a display unit comprising a plurality of displays, one of which being formed as a touch panel, and a controller for analyzing a signal inputted through the touch panel to determine whether movement distance of data satisfies pre-set conditions, and outputting a control signal for displaying the corresponding data through a different display region according to the corresponding result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Jee-Young Cheon, Yeon-Woo Park, Sang-Hyuck Lee
  • Publication number: 20120127130
    Abstract: A touch sensor is provided including a controller and a planar layout having an edge and an interior portion. Further including a connector coupling the touch controller to the layout; a substrate made of a first material; and sensing elements made of a second material formed on the substrate and covering the layout without overlapping. Sensing elements have non-monotonic widths from the center along two perpendicular directions, and a centroid. The touch sensor including pass-through traces to couple edge to interior portions to determine two-dimensional locations for touches using a weighting that is proportional to an overlap area of the sensor elements and their centroids. The substrate may be made of a dielectric and the sensing elements made of a conductor. A method for using a controller circuit having a memory to store centroid locations and determine a two-dimensional location on a touch screen as above is also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Inventor: DAVID HANN JUNG
  • Publication number: 20120127131
    Abstract: An electronic appliance including a processor and a computer-readable medium, having instructions for execution by a processor is provided. The instructions causing the processor to perform methods to obtain an error map for locations in a touch sensor. The method including inputting a geometry for a touch sensor layout; inputting coordinates for centroids of sensing elements in the touch sensor layout; and inputting a touch geometry. The method includes the steps of selecting a plurality of test points on the touch sensor layout; generating, a calculated touch location for each of the plurality of test points; and an error map from the calculated touch locations and the test points. The method may include generating an error measure from the error map; displaying, the generated error map and the generated error measure; and adjusting the geometry for the touch sensor layout if the error measure is larger than a tolerance value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2010
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Inventors: David Hann Jung, John Nolting
  • Patent number: 8184092
    Abstract: A method and system of utilizing a game console with motion sensing technology is provided. The present invention, in various implementations, provides for a method for generating one or more symbols in response to one or more gestures using an input device of a gaming system. The method comprises providing the input device being capable of generating one or more gesture signals in response to one or more gestures and being operable to select a mode of one or more operational states. The method also provides for generating one or more gesture signals corresponding to the one or more gestures, respectively; mapping the one or more generated gesture signals in relation to one or more symbols, respectively; and, transmitting the one or more symbols corresponding to the respective one or more gesture signals to an output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jason Alan Cox, Lydia Mai Do
  • Patent number: 8184102
    Abstract: Touch sensor methods, devices and systems are disclosed. One embodiment of the present invention pertains to a method comprising monitoring a finger movement along a touch sensing surface based on position data of a finger touching the touch sensing surface, where the position data is obtained by locating a position of a force applied by the finger in a coordinate of the touch sensing surface. In addition, the method comprises generating direction data associated with the finger movement if the finger movement travels for more than a threshold distance. Furthermore, the method comprises determining a finger gesture which corresponds to the finger movement using a lookup table having multiple preconfigured finger gestures based on the direction data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Tony Park, Luther Lu, Nelson Chow
  • Publication number: 20120113064
    Abstract: A touch sensitive device having circuitry to compensate for crosstalk from the device display to the device touch sensor panel is disclosed. The crosstalk compensation circuitry can include a downsampler and a crosstalk compensator. The downsampler can downsample a display image to a manageable size for transmission and processing and can then send the downsampled image to the crosstalk compensator so as to provide information about the display operation that can be used to estimate the expected amount of crosstalk caused by the display. The crosstalk compensator can estimate the amount of crosstalk based on the downsampled image and can then compensate a touch image captured by the touch sensor panel for the estimated amount, the touch image being indicative of a touch or hover event at the panel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2010
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Inventors: Kevin J. WHITE, Marduke Yousefpor, Christoph Horst Krah, Steven Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8174511
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a touch panel display including, a flat plate-shaped movable panel unit, a movable support member, an acoustic vibration unit, and a soft member, wherein the acoustic vibration unit includes, a sound generating member, an actuator, and a hard member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mikio Takenaka, Shigeaki Maruyama
  • Publication number: 20120105382
    Abstract: A display device includes an operating body detection unit detecting an operating body disposed over a display screen, a position determination unit determining a three-dimensional position of the operating body from the detection result and outputting the three-dimensional position as position information for the operating body, a position designation unit designating a three-dimensional position over the display screen, a guide information generation unit generating guide information which requests a user to perform a predetermined action for an operating body around the designated three-dimensional position and then dispose the operating body at the designated three-dimensional position, a correction information generation unit generating correction information from an error between the designated three-dimensional position and a determination result of the three-dimensional position of the operating body disposed according to the guide information, and a position correction unit correcting a three-dimensi
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2011
    Publication date: May 3, 2012
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takahiro Tokuda, Masayuki Kuwata, Ryoko Amano, Akira Wakatsuki
  • Patent number: 8169415
    Abstract: Provided is a touch sensor device including: at least one terminal connected to at least one contact pad; at least one common terminal; at least one light emitter connected between the common terminal and the terminal; and a touch sensor and light-emission controller unit connected to the common terminal and the terminal, and when a touch is sensed by the contact pad, controlling a corresponding light emitter to emit light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Atlab Inc.
    Inventors: Young-Ho Shin, Bang-Won Lee, Du-Su Shin
  • Patent number: 8169413
    Abstract: A method for operating a touch input device and a portable terminal using the touch input device may prevent a malfunction of the touch input device due to an abrupt change of external temperature. The method for operating a touch input device measures a temperature, calculates a temperature difference value between temperatures measured at a current time point and a previous time point, and compensates a recognition threshold value used for detecting a touch event with a predefined compensation value based on the temperature difference value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chung Suk Jin, Hae Jun An
  • Patent number: 8164582
    Abstract: A method for using a touch display system comprises defining local distortion zones within regions of a touchscreen. Each of the local distortion zones has an associated calibration touch point and a target. Coordinates of a user touch point are distorted within a first local distortion zone based on a location of the user touch point within the first local distortion zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Tyco Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth J. North, Jeffery L. Bahr, Joel C. Kent
  • Patent number: 8159462
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for offsetting the reference voltage range of a relaxation-type oscillator decreases sensing time and reduces noise-induced jitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventor: Ryan D. Seguine
  • Patent number: 8150143
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a dynamic calibration method for a single and multiple video capture devices. The present invention can acquire the variations of the pan angle and tilt angle of a single video capture device according to the displacement of the feature points between successive images. For a plurality of video capture devices, the present invention includes the epipolar-plane constraint between a plurality of video capture devices to achieve the goal of dynamical calibration. The calibration method in the present invention does not require specific calibration patterns or complicated correspondence of feature points, and can be applied to surveillance systems with wide-range coverage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: National Chiao Tung University
    Inventors: I-Hsien Chen, Sheng-Jyh Wang
  • Publication number: 20120068956
    Abstract: An adaptive interface system includes a user interface for controlling a vehicle system, a sensor for detecting a position of an extremity of a user and generating a sensor signal representing the position of the extremity, and a processor in communication with the sensor and the user interface, wherein the processor receives the sensor signal, analyzes the sensor signal based upon an instruction set to determine a pointing vector of the user, and configures the user interface based upon the pointing vector of the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Applicant: VISTEON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Joseph Charles Jira, Theodore Charles Wingrove, Royce Duchante Channey
  • Patent number: 8130212
    Abstract: A contact-sensing device includes a capacitance contact-sensing unit including contact-sensing areas configured to at least detect contact with an external object; a calibration-value setting unit configured to set a calibration value to be used to calibrate capacitances of the contact-sensing areas based on capacitances of the contact-sensing areas excluding the contact-sensing area detected by the contact-sensing unit; a calibration determining unit configured to determine whether calibration of the capacitances of the contact-sensing areas is to be carried out based on capacitances of the contact-sensing areas excluding the contact-sensing area detected by the contact-sensing unit; and a capacitance calibrating unit configured to calibrate capacitances of all of the contact-sensing areas using the calibration value set by the calibration-value setting unit when the calibration determining unit determines that calibration is to be carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB
    Inventor: Tetsuo Umeda
  • Publication number: 20120050230
    Abstract: A method of calibrating a touch sensitive device comprising a touch-sensitive screen; a plurality of transducers mounted to the screen and a processor, the method comprising inputting a signal into the screen at a test position on the screen whereby the screen is excited into vibration; detecting vibration in the screen using the plurality of transducers; and processing, in the processor of the touch-sensitive device, the detected vibration to generate an output signal for each of the plurality of transducers whereby when the transducers are driven by the output signals the screen is excited to generate a desired haptics sensation at the test position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2010
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicant: NEW TRANSDUCERS LIMITED
    Inventor: Neil John Harris
  • Publication number: 20120050229
    Abstract: A method for calibrating a touch sensor panel including a plurality of touch electrodes is provided. The method includes determining, for each of the plurality of touch electrodes, a contribution in terms of capacitance to a total capacitance of the touch sensor panel; and allocating a fraction of a fixed period of time for measuring a capacitance of each of the plurality of electrodes based on the electrode's contribution to the total capacitance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2010
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Inventors: Matthew D. TENUTA, Louis W. Bokma
  • Patent number: 8125464
    Abstract: Normalization of regions of a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-touch events, or a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-hover events, is disclosed to enable each sensor in the sensor panel to trigger a virtual button in a similar manner, given the same amount of touch or hover. Each sensor produces an output value proportional to the level or amount of touch or hover. However, due to processing, manufacturing and physical design differences, the sensor output values can vary from region to region or panel to panel for a given amount of touch or hover. To normalize the sensor output values across regions, gain and offset information can be obtained in advance, stored in nonvolatile memory, and later used to normalize the sensor output values so that all regions in the sensor panel can trigger virtual buttons similarly, providing a uniform “response function” at any location on the sensor panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Richards Land, Steve Porter Hotelling, Richard Wei Kwang Lim
  • Patent number: 8125457
    Abstract: One embodiment receives a single click from a user to switch an electronic device between a mouse mode and a touch mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Richard James Lawson, Marguerite Letulle, Oluf Nissen
  • Patent number: 8125456
    Abstract: A system and method for autonomously scanning a sensor panel device, such as a multi-touch panel, is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system and method disables a sensor panel processor after a first predetermined amount of time has elapsed without the sensor panel device sensing any events. One or more system clocks can also be disabled to conserve power. While the processor and one or more system clocks are disabled, the sensor panel device can periodically autonomously scan the sensor panel for touch activity. Accordingly, if one or more results from the autonomous scans exceed a threshold, the sensor panel device re-enables the processor and one or more clocks to actively scan the sensor panel. If the threshold is not exceeded, then the sensor panel device continues to periodically autonomously scan the sensor panel without intervention from the processor. Furthermore, the sensor panel device can periodically perform calibration functions to account for any drift that may be present in the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Christoph Horst Krah, Minh-Dieu Thi Vu, Thomas James Wilson
  • Patent number: 8125455
    Abstract: Normalization of regions of a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-touch events, or a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-hover events, is disclosed to enable each sensor in the sensor panel to trigger a virtual button in a similar manner, given the same amount of touch or hover. Each sensor produces an output value proportional to the level or amount of touch or hover. However, due to processing, manufacturing and physical design differences, the sensor output values can vary from region to region or panel to panel for a given amount of touch or hover. To normalize the sensor output values across regions, gain and offset information can be obtained in advance, stored in nonvolatile memory, and later used to normalize the sensor output values so that all regions in the sensor panel can trigger virtual buttons similarly, providing a uniform “response function” at any location on the sensor panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Richards Land, Steve Porter Hotelling, Richard Wei Kwang Lim
  • Patent number: 8125347
    Abstract: A display component implements a text entry system for a device, such as a cell phone or other handheld device, has various layers that mimic characteristics of a conventional keyboard. A keyboard is displayed on a dynamic touch screen display. When a key is pressed by a user, the surface area of the key on the display depresses, thereby mimicking a conventional keyboard that would typically be used with a desktop or laptop computer. The display component is comprised of various layers or panels. One layer is a compressible touch sensitive or touch screen layer. Adjacent to this layer is a compressible display layer. Another layer is a deformable or cushion layer for supporting a specific weight, such as the weight of user fingers or hands. Adjacent to the deformable layer is a lower touch sensitive layer which has a coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Paul Fahn
  • Patent number: 8120596
    Abstract: A tiled touch system comprises a display on which a computer-generated image is presented. The image is formed of an array of image segments. A digitizer is mapped to the display and senses pointer contacts made thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: SMART Technologies ULC
    Inventors: David Gregory Popovich, Douglas Blair Hill, Serguei Vdovine
  • Patent number: 8111243
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to recognize a tap gesture on a sensing device. The method may include detecting a presence of a conductive object on a sensing device, determining a velocity of the detected presence of the conductive object, and recognizing a tap gesture based on the velocity. The velocity may be determined by determining a differential of the capacitance over time on a sensing device. The sensing device may include a plurality of sensor elements to detect the presence of the conductive object, and a processing device may be used to determine the velocity of the presence of the conductive object, and to recognize a tap gesture based on the velocity of the presence of the conductive object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Tao Peng, Zheng Qin
  • Patent number: 8106893
    Abstract: Human contact/non-contact is detected speedily and accurately. A measurement section measures capacitance of each of sites to which a plurality of electrodes are connected where a human body touches, a comparison section compares the capacitance with a threshold value for each contacting electrode, and a control section determines whether a human body has come in contact based on the comparison result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Fujita, Masahiro Kinoshita, Takeshi Horiuchi, Teppei Sumino, Seiichi Kurosawa
  • Patent number: 8102371
    Abstract: The present invention provides a calibration method of projection effect. The calibration method of projection effect according to the invention comprises the following steps. The first, step (a) is performed to make an optical navigation system move along a predetermined trace relative to an object plane. Then, step (b) is performed to sense the predetermined trace by a sensor to obtain a projection trace. The next, step (c) is performed to calculate a projection effect value according to the included angle between a reflected light and the object plane. Finally, step (d) is performed to calibrate the projection trace with the projection effect value to obtain a calibration trace which is in proportion to the predetermined trace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Armaments Bureau, Ministry of National Defense
    Inventor: Chih-Ming Liao
  • Patent number: 8089008
    Abstract: When a start pulse is supplied, a time-constant circuit (1) is charged to a voltage Vcc, and charge in a variable capacitor (C) is discharged through a resistor (R1). Upon the voltage (a) of the variable capacitor (C) reaching a preset reference voltage V1, a signal (b) is output from a comparator (2). In response to the signal (b), a time measuring circuit (3) stores a measured time period as a time period “T1”, and at the same time a switching signal (c) is output. The switching signal (c) switches the reference voltage V1 to a reference voltage V2, which is slightly lower than the reference voltage V1, and further switches the resistor R1 to a resistor R2, which has higher resistance than the resistor R1. Upon the voltage (a) of the variable capacitor (C) reaching the reference voltage V2, the signal (b) is output from the comparator 2. In response to the signal (b), the time measuring circuit (3) stores a measured time period as a time period “T2”.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Wacom Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yuji Katsurahira
  • Patent number: 8085247
    Abstract: An oscillating signal of relatively precise frequency is generated by tuning an oscillator using an external stable oscillating source as a reference. Calibration logic is included to compare a signal from the local oscillator to the reference signal and vary the local signal to a desired frequency. In one embodiment, a binary search algorithm is used to tune the local oscillator. The local oscillating signal can be sent to one or more circuits including at least one sensor of a touch sensitive panel for detecting touch events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas James Wilson
  • Publication number: 20110310064
    Abstract: Apparatus for a touch sensor, the apparatus comprising circuitry for processing signaling to determine the detection of touch input, wherein the circuitry for processing is arranged to detect touch input by comparing touch signaling with one or more reference thresholds, and wherein the circuitry for processing is arranged to perform a first touch calibration, following the detection of the first touch, to provide a first reference threshold which compensates for the signaling associated with the first touch, and wherein the circuitry for processing is arranged to detect a subsequent next touch, using the first reference threshold, as the reference threshold for detection of said next subsequent touch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2007
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: NOKIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Turo Hermanni Keski-Jaskari, Marko Kalervo Karhiniemi
  • Patent number: 8082145
    Abstract: Embodiments for manipulating characters displayed on a display screen are provided, wherein one example method includes identifying a selected word, wherein the selected word includes at least one character to be modified. The method further includes correlating each of the at least one character with a unique numerical value and receiving a selection command and a modification command, wherein the selection command is the unique numerical value corresponding to a selected character. Furthermore, the method includes modifying the selected character responsive to the modification command to generate a modified word.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David Mowatt, Robert Chambers, Felix GTI Andrew
  • Patent number: 8079714
    Abstract: A projector for acquiring a coordinate of a bright spot includes a half transparent and half reflecting mirror (22), an imaging device (24), and a processing system (25). The half transparent and half reflecting mirror (22) is provided on a light path between the light source (21) and the zooming system (23). The imaging device (24) captures an external light ray reflected by the half transparent and half reflecting mirror (22). The processing system (25) acquires the coordinate of the bright spot according to the image of the image of the bright spot captured by the imaging device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignees: Beijing Lenovo Software Ltd., Lenovo (Beijing) Limited
    Inventors: Shaoping Peng, Yiqiang Yan, Zifeng Hou, Bo Liu
  • Patent number: 8077160
    Abstract: Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Richards Land, Wayne Carl Westerman, Steve Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8077163
    Abstract: A mobile device has a housing having first and second display areas. A mic-array is integrated into the housing and has microphones operable to sense sound signals at multiple locations on the housing from a sound pen when handwriting an alphanumeric symbol on a surface separate from and in proximity to the housing. A handwriting-to-text converter is operable to graphically represent, for display on the first display area, simulated handwritten traces of the alphanumeric symbol and to convert the alphanumeric symbol into a computer-readable interchange code, representative of the alphanumeric symbol, for display in the second display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventor: Yingyong Qi
  • Publication number: 20110298759
    Abstract: During test of a display, a synchronous reference signal is determined, and an appearing moment of a minimal-noise signal is determined based on a start moment of the synchronous reference signal. Therefore, during other tests or usage by a user on the display, noise from data lines due to data coupling may be avoided, and detection and determination of touch commands on a touch panel of the display may be isolated from being disturbed by the noise.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Inventors: Chun-Wei Yang, Chun-Lung Hung, Yu-Min Hsu, Yung-Tse Cheng
  • Publication number: 20110291997
    Abstract: A calibratable system for translating a position input by a user to a first device to a position output of a second device includes a translation module and a calibration module. The translation module receives the position input by the user to the first device and that translates the position input to position output for the second device based on a plurality of parameters and a translation method. The calibration module selectively generates the plurality of parameters based on a calibration method that commands the user to move the position input to locations defined by the calibration method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Publication date: December 1, 2011
    Applicant: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yue Fei
  • Patent number: 8067725
    Abstract: A deviation of an optic axis of a laser projector is detected, and the deviation is corrected. Laser projector's CPU executes: commanding a laser beam source of one color, out of laser beam sources of three colors, to emit a laser beam; shutting off the laser when sensing that the laser beam is received in a light-receiving region; applying a laser of a color to be detected as to the presence or absence of a deviation of the axis until its reception in the light-receiving region is sensed; keeping time starting when light reception in the light-receiving region is sensed and ending when light reception in a light-receiving region adjacent thereto is sensed; calculating a relative time difference of each of the colors with respect to a reference color; and correcting a light emission timing of the laser beam source of each of the color, based on the calculated time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Nishioka, Atsuya Hirano, Seiji Takemoto, Atsuhiko Chikaoka
  • Patent number: 8063886
    Abstract: A data input device with a film-based pressure sensor including a first carrier film, a second carrier film and a spacer. The spacer has an opening delimiting an active zone, in which first and second electrodes are arranged such that, in response to a compressive force, an electrical contact is established. A control circuit able to operate in at least a first and a second mode is configured to measure, in the first mode a quantity indicative of electrical resistance and, in the second mode, a quantity indicative of a capacitance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: IEE International Electronics & Engineering S.A.
    Inventors: Bogdan Serban, Philippe Boyer, Aloyse Schoos
  • Patent number: 8059107
    Abstract: A touch sensitive apparatus includes a touch plate to which several pickup sensors and at least one excitation transducer are coupled. Each of the sensors is configured to sense bending waves in the touch plate, and the excitation transducer is configured to induce bending waves in the touch plate. The apparatus may further include active buffer circuits, wherein each of the active buffer circuits is coupled to one of the sensors. A controller is coupled to the sensors via the active buffer circuits and to the excitation transducer via a non-actively buffered connection. The controller is configured to compute a location of a contact on the touch plate responsive to sense signals received from the sensors. The apparatus may be used to perform a variety of calibrations, including touch plate and sensor calibrations. Changes in touch sensing apparatus calibration and performance may be detected and tracked over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Nicholas P. R. Hill, Darius M. Sullivan
  • Patent number: 8054296
    Abstract: Pre-stored no-touch or no-hover (no-event) sensor output values can initially be used when a sensor panel subsystem is first booted up to establish an initial baseline of sensor output values unaffected by fingers or other objects touching or hovering over the sensor panel during boot-up. This initial baseline can then be normalized so that each sensor generates the same output value for a given amount of touch or hover, providing a uniform response across the sensor panel and enabling subsequent touch or hover events to be more easily detected. After the initial normalization process is complete, the pre-stored baseline can be discarded in favor of a newly captured no-event baseline that may be more accurate than the pre-stored baseline due to temperature or other variations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Richards Land, Wayne Carl Westerman, Steve Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8049696
    Abstract: A standby circuit and method for a display device is disclosed. A detector detects voltage drop of the first termination resistor of a positive path of a clock channel, and the second termination resistors of a negative path. Upon detecting the voltage drop, a switch controller disconnects the positive path or the negative path that has the detected voltage drop, thereby saving power in the standby mode of the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Himax Media Solutions, Inc.
    Inventor: Hui-Min Wang
  • Patent number: 8049732
    Abstract: A touch surface device having improved sensitivity and dynamic range is disclosed. In one embodiment, the touch surface device includes a touch-sensitive panel having at least one sense node for providing an output signal indicative of a touch or no-touch condition on the panel; a compensation circuit, coupled to the at least one sense node, for generating a compensation signal that when summed with the output signal removes an undesired portion of the output signal so as to generated a compensated output signal; and an amplifier having an inverting input coupled to the output of the compensation circuit and a non-inverting input coupled to a known reference voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Steve Porter Hotelling, Brian Richards Land
  • Patent number: 8049731
    Abstract: A method for implementing a control function via a sensor having a touch sensitive control input surface. The method includes detecting a contact with the touch sensitive control input surface, determining a pressure value corresponding to the contact, and initiating a control function from a set of possible control functions based at least in part on the pressure value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Interlink Electronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey R. Baker, Michael J. Errico, David J. Arthur, Steve B. Branton
  • Patent number: 8049740
    Abstract: A computer readable medium has instructions to calibrate a touch system by detecting touch points on a touchscreen that are each associated with touchscreen coordinates in a touchscreen coordinate system. The instructions associated each of the touch points with known calibration targets, and each of the calibration targets has display coordinates in a display coordinate system that is associated with at least one of a display screen and an operating system. The instructions fit the display coordinates and the touchscreen coordinates non-linearly with respect to each other based on a generalized Laplace-constrained fit that is used to identify correction parameters used to map a user generated run-time touch point on the touchscreen to a display coordinate location on a display screen. The correction parameters represent non-linear corrections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Tyco Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Joel C. Kent, Robert J. Warmack
  • Patent number: 8044930
    Abstract: A light sensitive display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Adiel Abileah, Willem den Boer, Pat Green
  • Patent number: 8026903
    Abstract: A multi-touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on either side. Metal traces running along the border of the substrate can be used to bring the row traces to the same edge as the column traces. A single flex circuit can be fabricated to connect to the rows and columns on directly opposing sides. Flex printed circuits can be bonded to directly opposing attachment areas of a substrate by cooling one side of the substrate while bonding the other. In addition, “coverlay” material extending over right-angled traces on the flex circuit ensure that those traces do not get shorted should conductive bonding material get squeezed out during bonding. Furthermore, a spacer is placed at the distal end of the flex circuit to apply even bonding pressure over the entire flex circuit attachment area during bonding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Arthur Hamblin, Steve Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8026905
    Abstract: A multi-touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on either side. Metal traces running along the border of the substrate can be used to bring the row traces to the same edge as the column traces. A single flex circuit can be fabricated to connect to the rows and columns on directly opposing sides. Flex printed circuits can be bonded to directly opposing attachment areas of a substrate by cooling one side of the substrate while bonding the other. In addition, “coverlay” material extending over right-angled traces on the flex circuit ensure that those traces do not get shorted should conductive bonding material get squeezed out during bonding. Furthermore, a spacer is placed at the distal end of the flex circuit to apply even bonding pressure over the entire flex circuit attachment area during bonding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Arthur Hamblin, Steve Porter Hotelling
  • Patent number: 8026906
    Abstract: A software compensation method that allows a touch sensitive display to be built using low-cost FSR force sensors The compensation method comprises an array of functional compensation modules including filtering, voltage conversion, temperature compensation, humidity compensation, sensor calibration, sensor reading linearization, auto calibration, positioning determination and finally end-user and mechanical calibration. The array of compensation modules can bring system accuracy from a non-compensated average positioning error in the 25% to 50% range, down to aN end-user acceptable range of 0% to 5%. The increased positioning accuracy makes it possible to use FSRs as opposed to traditional piezoresistive based touch screen sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: F-Origin, Inc.
    Inventors: Anders L Mölne, Joseph Carsanaro, Toni Leinonen, Konstantin Klimov
  • Patent number: 8013846
    Abstract: A touch detection device for detecting touches on a given surface. The inventive device includes a surface where a touch generates acoustic waves, transducers that detect these waves, a controller that calculate the location of the touch and a host device where the touch position is used to communicate with the application program. The screen is formed from any material that is capable of propagating acoustic waves. Plurality transducers are placed on the screen. These transducers detect acoustic waves generated on the screen. The screen is calibrated by touching it once and a map of arrival time ratios are generated and saved in the storage unit. During the real time operation, a touch on the screen generates acoustic waves that are detected by transducers. The output of each transducer is sent to a controller unit where the time differences and their ratios are calculated and compared to time ratios in the storage unit to detect the touch location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: TPK Holding Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Gokalp Bayramoglu, Nihat Deniz Bayramoglu
  • Patent number: 8013844
    Abstract: A lenticular lens is provided in front of a liquid crystal panel composed of a plurality of pixels. In this case, the lenticular lens is arranged so that one cylindrical lens corresponds to two pixels adjacent to each other. Then, light rays outgoing from two pixels are refracted by this one cylindrical lens and intersect with each other at a point positioned on the surface of a tablet, and then reach the right eye and the left eye of a user, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: NEC LCD Technologies, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoyasu Ikeda, Shin-ichi Uehara, Nobuaki Takanashi
  • Patent number: 8004503
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for automatically calibrating a pointing device, such as a stylus, with a writing surface, such as a touch screen. In one example, an automated method is implemented to calibrate the writing surface based user inputs attempting to use the computer for functions other than calibration of the writing surface. The user inputs may be, for example, a user selecting a button within a non-calibration software application. The automated method may generate a miscalibration vector based upon where the user input was received and where the user input was expected. In yet another example, a bias field may be generated for the writing surface from the collected user inputs. In yet other examples, a computing device may comprise computer-executable instructions for performing one or methods of calibrating the writing surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Zotov, Reed Townsend, Sameer Shariff, Steve Dodge