Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.

Alps Alpineco., Ltd.

Naoyuki Hatano

Tomoki Yamada

Hiroshi Izumi

Masafumi Takagi

Kazuhito Oshita

Shinya Abe

Tatsumi Fujiyoshi

Hideki Ito

Yasuji Hagiwara

Shinji Hirano

Tetsuo Muranaka

Kazuhito Ohshita

Naoya Akiyama

Koichi Miura

There is provided a sensor unit for detecting a proximity state of an object at N detection positions, generating a composite detection signal in conformity with the sum of N detection signals obtained as a result of detection for N detection positions, and controlling a positive or negative polarity of the detection signal having a signal level in conformity with the proximity state at each of N detection positions, a sensor control unit for controlling the sensor unit for generating M composite detection signals having N polarity patterns set at N detection signals different from each other, and a signal regeneration unit for regenerating the signal level of the N detection signal based on the M composite detection signals generated by the sensor unit.

Input device, control method for controlling input device, and recording medium in which program for causing computer to perform control method for controlling input device

A position outputting device that includes sensing electrodes disposed along an operational surface operated by an object, the operational surface having an operational area, the operational area having a boundary area and an inner area, a position detector configured to detect a position where the object touches the operational surface based on capacitances, the sections including first sections and second sections, the first sections being located in the inner area, the second sections being located in the boundary area, and a determiner configured to determine to output the position data in response to the peak value being detected in one of the first sections and if the difference between the peak value detected in the one of the first sections and the capacitance detected in one of the second sections neighboring the one of the first sections is not more than a predetermined value.

Position outputting device

A coordinate input device includes an operation detecting unit for detecting an input operation performed by an operation body and a calculation unit for computing a calculation result from the input operation, wherein, in a case where the input operation detected by the operation detecting unit continues for a predetermined time, the calculation unit acquires a first position coordinate at a first time and a second position coordinate at a second time is detected after the first time, calculates an input vector from the first position and directed toward the second position, calculates a movable distance between an end and another end of the operation detecting unit on a line connecting the first position and the second position, and computing an output vector by increasing a correction value for correcting a value of the input vector so that the shorter the movable distance, the larger the correction value is.

Coordinate input device

There is provision of an input device for calculating loads applied to multiple pressed points respectively, by executing one or more calculation loops in a load calculation unit. The calculation loop includes calculating computation values representing loads detected at load sensors based on initial pressed point loads, calculating a comparison value based on a comparison of the computation value with a detection value detected by the load sensor, calculating an adjustment value for adjusting the initial pressed point load based on the comparison values and pressed positions, and calculating the pressed point loads by adjusting the initial pressed point load based on the adjustment value. The load calculation unit uses the pressed point load calculated in the calculation loop for each of the pressed positions as an initial pressed point load in the next calculation loop.

Input device having load calculation method for a plurality of pressed positions

An input device for detecting a change in capacitance in accordance with proximity of an object is provided. The input device includes: a sensor unit including multiple capacitive coupling parts formed between multiple driving electrodes and multiple sensing electrodes; a capacitance detector for detecting a capacitance value of each of the capacitive coupling parts; and a two-dimensional data generating unit for generating a two-dimensional data matrix consisting of the capacitance values of the capacitive coupling parts. When a target row or a target column in the two-dimensional data matrix matches a first pattern indicating that multiple capacitive coupling parts each having a capacitance value greater than a reference value are arranged consecutively, the input device updates the reference value.

Input device and control method thereof

There is provided an electrostatic input device including a plurality of electrodes, and receiving an input operation according to electrostatic capacitances generated between the plurality of electrodes and an object when the object comes close to a detection surface, the device including a variation detection unit configured to detect variations in the electrostatic capacitances, a determination unit configured to determine whether the object coming close to the detection surface is the fingertip or the palm on the basis of the variations detected by the variation detection unit, and a control unit configured to inhibit reception of an input operation on the detection surface for a predetermined period of time in a case where the determination unit determines that the object coming close to the detection surface is the palm.

Electrostatic input device

Each of multiple detection data values included in two-dimensional data, generated based on detection results of sensor unit, is converted into either an on data value or an off data value by a data conversion unit. Each data value included in the converted two-dimensional data is sequentially acquired from an edge of an operating face by a region identifying unit, and is determined whether an on data value or not. In a case where determination is made that the acquired data value is an on data value, the acquired data value is set as a starting point, and an outline of a set region where adjacent on data values form a set is tracked in order starting from the starting point until returning to the original starting point again.

Input device, and information input method of the same

A sensor unit outputs detection data as the detection result of the approach state of an object at a plurality of detection positions. A noise amount calculation unit calculates noise included in the detection data as the amount of noise. Then, when a filter unit attenuates the noise included in the detection data, the noise attenuation characteristics of a low-pass filtering process are changed depending on the calculated amount of noise such that the attenuation of noise increases as the amount of noise increases and decreases as the amount of noise decreases.

Input device

A coordinate detecting device includes a plurality of first and second electrodes, a detecting unit for scanning the first and second electrodes to detect sensor output values of the first and second electrodes, and an arithmetic processing unit for performing an arithmetic process on the basis of the detected sensor output values. When there are a plurality of peak regions in which the sensor output values of both the first and second electrodes are equal to or greater than a first threshold value, the detecting unit detects the sensor output values at intersection points between the first and second electrodes in the peak regions. The arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of a detection target on the basis of the sensor output values at the intersection points between the first and second electrodes in the peak regions and the coordinates of the first and second electrodes in the peak regions.

Coordinate detecting device

A coordinate detecting device includes a detecting unit configured to detect the capacitance of each of a plurality of electrodes arranged in a predetermined direction and an arithmetic processing unit configured to calculate the coordinates of a detection target using different calculation methods according to the state of a variation in the capacitance of the plurality of electrodes. The arithmetic processing unit calculates the coordinates of the detection target, using one of a centroid calculation method of calculating the coordinates of the centroid and a curve approximation method of calculating a peak of a curve according to a comparison value between a capacitance variation of a peak electrode and a capacitance variation of an electrode which is not adjacent to the peak electrode.

Coordinate detecting device and coordinate detecting program

A coordinate detecting device includes a plurality of first electrodes, a plurality of second electrodes, a capacitance detecting circuit, a first electrode switch, and a second electrode switch. All of the second electrodes are connected to a power supply by the second electrode switch and the first electrodes are selectively connected to the capacitance detecting circuit by the first electrode switch, thereby detecting a first coordinate. All of the first electrodes are connected to the power supply by the first electrode switch and the second electrodes are selectively connected to the capacitance detecting circuit by the second electrode switch, thereby detecting a second coordinate. When a plurality of first coordinates or a plurality of second coordinates are detected, capacitances between the first and second electrodes corresponding to combinations of the detected first and second coordinates are measured, thereby specifying the position of the detection target.

A thin input device can be made small and thin, and prevent an excessive force from acting on a connecting part with a substrate when an operating part is operated to detect deformation of an actuating member. An actuating member is received in a recess of a lower case, and a lid is fixed. The actuating member includes fixed parts provided at four corners and deformable parts thinner than the fixed parts. The fixed parts are fixedly sandwiched between a bottom surface of the recess of the lower case and the lid. The deformable parts, to which strain detecting elements are attached, are provided in four directions around the operating part. When the operating knob is operated to deform a deformable part, the force acts only on the case, and an excessive force does not act on connecting parts between the connecting terminals, and a substrate.

A coordinate input device includes an operation unit that is provided so as to be operated, strain sensors that output data corresponding to an operation amount of the operation unit, and a control unit. The control unit performs the count corresponding to the increase or decrease of speed data that is obtained by converting data sequentially output from the strain sensors, and generates counted count values or coordinate data calculated from the count values. The control unit calculates a moving average value from the count values that are sequentially output every predetermined time. When the moving average value satisfies predetermined conditions, the control unit regards that the operation of the operation unit is cancelled, and stops the output of the coordinate data or outputs 0 as the count value.

A personal computer in which a returning from a power saving mode for further suppressing power consumption to a normal operating mode is possible by detecting an operation of stick-type coordinate input device is provided. Since a pressure sensor which is an input device connected to a I/O is comprised in a pointer, it is possible to output an operation signal from the pressure sensor to a CPU by pressing an operation grip, instead of distortion sensors which can not output the operation signal from a detecting circuit to the CPU due to the stop of a clock oscillator in the idle mode. Thereby, even in the idle mode in which the clock oscillator is stopped, the computer can return to the normal operating mode by the operation of the pointer which is not feasible in the prior art.

Input device and personal computer

Loss of data to be transmitted from a peripheral device to a host before a software hierarchy of the host side completely starts is prevented. In a time period before a host completely reached a normal operation mode from a sleep mode, data outputted from a receiver is stored in second buffer memory of a communication control device. When the host reaches the normal operation mode, an application hierarchy in the host transmits a transmission approval command to a control unit, and then the data is transferred from the second buffer memory to first buffer memory. Since communication between the host and the communication control device of the receiver is resumed and then the data stored in the first buffer memory is sent to the host through a USB line, loss of the data can be prevented.

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Miyagi-ken, Japan

Naoyuki Hatano