Omron Corporation

Hideshi Tsugui

Masahiro Kinoshita

Yoshihiro Tanabe

Hiroyuki Iwasaka

Toshimitsu Fujiwara

Hideyuki Urata

Yasunari Kitajima

Whether a human body is touching or not is detected highly accurately at high speed. Switch SWis turned on to charge condenser Ca by power supply Vcc. The switch SWis turned off to transfer the electric charge charged in the condenser Ca to condensers Cs and Cx. The switches SWand SWare repeatedly turned on and off for a predetermined short time, and thus the electric charge charged in the condenser Ca is slowly discharged through resistor R. The unknown charging voltage Vx of the condenser Cx is compared with the reference voltage Vref by comparator Comp, and the unknown capacitance of the condenser Cx is computed based on the number of times to count turning on and off until it is smaller than the reference voltage Vref. When the computed unknown capacitance of the condenser Cx is the value near the capacitance of a human body, it is determined that a human body is touching. The invention can be applied to a touch sensor.

Capacitance measuring apparatus and method, and program

An input device, which is small-sized and inexpensive in spite of being simple in construction and thin, comprises at least one primary electrode and a plurality of secondary electrodes, both electrodes being formed in the same plane. A position of a dielectric is identified on the basis of differences in electrostatic capacity between the primary electrode and the secondary electrodes, which electrostatic capacity is changed by the dielectric positioned on a surface side of the both electrodes.

Input device

Growing community of inventors

Kyotanabe, Japan

Hideshi Tsugui