Elo Touch Solutions, Inc.

Elo Touchsystems, Inc.

Tyco Electronics Corporation

James Roney

Joel Christopher Kent

Kenneth John North

David S Hecht

Damien Berget

Kyu-Tak Son

Paul Leonard Futter

Kenneth Andrew Feehan

Forrest Kim Wunderlich

Robert William Kitchin

Jung Verheiden

Yoshikazu Tanaka

Geoffrey D Wilson

Donald B Armstrong

Drew John Loucks

Mike Lewis

Victor E Borgnis

Michael Bruno Patti

David Samuel Hecht

Techniques for providing multi-user multi-touch projected capacitive touch sensors are disclosed herein. Some embodiments may include a method that includes receiving a first sense signal from a first sensing array, the first sensing array configured to provide the first sense signal indicating a first touch on a first touch surface of a touch substrate as well as receiving a second sense signal from a second sensing array, the second sensing array configured to provide the second sense signal indicating a second touch on a second touch surface of a second touch substrate occurring concurrently to the first touch. The method may further include determining whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one anti-ghost. The method may also include associating the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity in response to determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost.

Multi-user multi-touch projected capacitance touch sensor with event initiation based on common touch entity detection

Techniques for providing multi-user multi-touch projected capacitive touch sensors are disclosed herein. Some embodiments may include a method that includes receiving a first sense signal indicating a first touch attributed to a first touch entity and receiving a second sense signal indicating a second touch attributed to a second touch entity. Based on the first sense signal and second sense signal, the method may further include determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity are a common touch entity. Furthermore, the method may include initiating an event in response to determining that the first touch entity and the second touch entity form a common touch entity.

Techniques for providing multi-user multi-touch projected capacitive touch sensors are disclosed herein. Some embodiments may include a touch sensor including a touch substrate with a touch surface, a sensing array, and a controller. The sensing array may be configured to provide sense signals indicating a first touch and a second touch occurring concurrently on the touch surface of the touch substrate. The controller may be configured to receive the sense signals from the sensing array and based on the sense signals, determine whether the first touch and the second touch share at least one anti-ghost. In response to determining that the first touch and the second touch share the at least one anti-ghost, the controller may be configured associate the first touch and the second touch with a common touch entity, such as an individual person.

Multi-user multi-touch projected capacitance touch sensor

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&#xb0;, also function to diffuse and eliminate spurious waves that propagate along the front surface of the substrate.

Acoustic wave touch detecting apparatus

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. In another aspect, a capacitive sensor is used to confirm or veto touch data from optical, surface acoustic wave, and force sensors. As is the case with the secondary force sensor, a secondary capacitive sensor may be a simple discrete type or capable of providing touch coordinates in its own right. In a specific embodiment, one in which no touch overlay is used on a CRT monitor, the secondary touch sensor may employ the resistive coating on the surface of the CRT in combination with a current monitoring circuit that measures the amplitude of the electromagnetic noise signal coupled to the resistive coating. In this application when the screen is touched by a grounded object, the detected signal amplitude change exceeds a preset threshold thus indicating a valid touch.

Touch confirming touchscreen utilizing plural touch sensors

A touchscreen is constructed directly on the glass surface of a cathode ray tube (CRT). To solve the problem of insufficient space between the CRT's bezel and frontal region to accommodate the transducers for the touchscreen, the transducers are moved away from the frontal region, to the highly curved shoulder region of the CRT. To preserve acoustic signal strength, the positioning of the transducers is chosen to take advantage of the fact that an acoustic wave on a non-Euclidean surface travels along a geodesic path. Allowance is also made for the acoustic lens and prism effect of the corner regions of the CRT, where the transducer may be located.

Acoustic touchscreen constructed directly on a cathode ray tube

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

James Roney