3m Innovative Properties Company

New Transducers Limited

Teraview Limited

Darius M Sullivan

Nicholas P R Hill

Nicholas Patrick Roland Hill

Bryan Edward Cole

Simon Chandler

A test system for testing a device having a plurality of electrical contacts. The test system comprising: a device table operable to hold at least one device under test, a probe comprising at least one probe end for contacting electrical contacts of a device under test, a movement mechanism operable to move one or both of the device table and the probe so as to bring the at least one probe end into contact with at least one electrical contact of a device under test, and a profile determining system configured to determine a profile of the electrical contacts of a device under test.

Test system

Test system for testing the integrity of an electronic device

A contact sensitive device () comprising a member () capable of supporting bending waves, a first sensor () mounted on the member for measuring bending wave vibration in the member, the sensor () determining a first measured bending wave signal and a processor which calculates information relating to a contact on the member () from the measured bending wave signal, the processor applying a correction based on the dispersion relation of the material of the member () supporting the bending waves, characterized in that the device () comprises a second sensor () to determine a second measured bending wave signal which is measured simultaneously with the first measured bending wave signal and the processor calculates a dispersion corrected function of the two measured bending wave signals which is selected from the group consisting of a dispersion corrected correlation function, a dispersion corrected convolution function, a dispersion corrected coherence function and other phase equivalent functions to determine information relating to the contact.

Contact sensitive device

A touch sensing device includes a plurality of sensors and an emitting transducer coupled to a touch panel. The transducer induces bending waves in the touch panel. The sensors sense bending waves in the touch panel and generate a bending wave signal responsive to the sensed bending waves. A controller identifies an untouched condition signal responsive to the induced bending waves. The controller compares the untouched condition signal to the bending wave signal, and detects a touch on the touch panel based on the comparison.

Touch sensing with touch down and lift off sensitivity

The present invention provides a touch sensitive input device that uses vibrations due to touch impacts and/or frictional movement of a touch implement across a surface to determine information related to the touch, such as touch position. The present invention also provides for detecting lift-off events in such vibration sensing input devices. Lift-off detection can be accomplished by monitoring for a signal that indicates a sustained touch on the touch plate, and correlating a change in such a signal with a lift-off event. Signals indicating a sustained touch can include low frequency rumbles coupled into the touch plate via the touch implement, touch plate bending under the force of a sustained touch, and touch plate displacement under the force of a sustained touch.

Vibration sensing touch input device

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.

Touch sensitive device employing bending wave vibration sensing and excitation transducers

The present invention discloses systems and methods for use with vibration sensing touch input devices that distinguish signals derived from vibrations on a touch plate due to a touch input from signals derives from electromagnetic interference. In the present invention, the phase response of the signals due to electromagnetic interference can be inverted relative to the phase response of the signals due to vibrations in at least one signal transmission channel so that pair wise cross-correlation of the various signal channels reveals the signals caused by electromagnetic interference. Once electromagnetic interference is identified, it can be ignored or otherwise appropriately taken into account by the system.

Distinguishing vibration signals from interference in vibration sensing touch input devices

A contact sensitive device includes a member capable of supporting bending waves and a plurality of sensors mounted on the member for measuring bending wave vibration in the member. The sensors measure the bending wave signals and by calculating a phase angle for each measured bending wave signal and a phase difference between the phase angles of at least two pairs of sensors so that at least two phase differences are calculated, the location of the contact can be determined.

A touch sensitive apparatus includes a touch plate and a number of sensors coupled to the touch plate. Each of the sensors is configured to sense bending waves in the touch plate and, in response to a touch to the touch plate, generate sensor signals. A controller is coupled to the sensors. The controller corrects for dispersion in the sensor signals and determines a location of the touch using the dispersion corrected signals. The controller performs impulse reconstruction, by which impulses representative of impulses generated by the touch to the touch sensitive device are produced. Using the reconstructed impulses, the controller confirms the location of the touch.

Touch sensitive device employing impulse reconstruction

A contact sensitive device includes a member capable of supporting bending waves, a first sensor mounted on the member for measuring bending wave vibration in the member, the sensor determining a first measured bending wave signal, a second sensor to determine a second measured bending wave signal and a processor that optimizes a product of a set of corrected impulse response measurements from each sensor to determine information related to a contact.

A contact sensitive device includes a member capable of supporting bending waves and a plurality of sensors mounted on the member for measuring bending wave vibration in the member. The sensors measure the bending wave signals and by calculating a phase angle for each measured bending wave signal and a phase difference between the phase angles of least two pairs of sensors so that at least two phase differences are calculated, the location of the contact can be determined.

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Cherry Hinton, United Kingdom

Darius M Sullivan