Apple Inc.

Sean Erik O'Connor

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Wayne Carl Westerman

Christoph Horst Krah

Steve Porter Hotelling

Steven Porter Hotelling

David H C Shih

Amit Nayyar

Peter Csaszar

Marduke Yousefpor

Martin Paul Grunthaner

Christopher Tenzin Mullens

Ari Y Benbasat

Louis W Bokma

Albert Lin

Morakinyo John Aina

Sai Zhang

Branislav Jovanovic

The use of multiple stimulation signals having one or more frequencies and one or more phases to generate an image of touch on a touch sensor panel is disclosed. Each of a plurality of sense channels can be coupled to a column in a touch sensor panel and can have one or more mixers. Each mixer in the sense channel can utilize a circuit capable generating a demodulation frequency of a particular frequency. At each of multiple steps, various phases of one or more selected frequencies can be used to simultaneously stimulate the rows of the touch sensor panel, and the one or more mixers in each sense channel can be configured to demodulate the signal received from the column connected to each sense channel using the one or more selected frequencies. After all steps have been completed, the demodulated signals from the one or more mixers can be used in calculations to determine an image of touch for the touch sensor panel at each of the one or more frequencies.

Touch detection using multiple simultaneous stimulation signals

This relates to a touch sensor panel including: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface; a first touch node formed by a first drive line and a first section of a first sense line both routed on the first surface of the substrate; and a second touch node formed by a second drive line routed on the first surface of the substrate and a second section of the first sense line routed on the second surface of the substrate.

Touch panel with non-uniform touch node layout

A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a first signal from a first sensor of the device, the first signal indicative of a grounding condition of the device; setting one or more touch detection thresholds based on the grounding condition; receiving a touch signal from a touch sensor of the device, the touch signal indicative of a touch by an object; and determining whether one or more parameters of the touch signal exceeds the one or more touch detection thresholds.

Method of optimizing touch detection

A touch sensitivity of a touch-sensitive surface can be adjusted based on a state of a device including the touch-sensitive surface. The state of the device can be a first state or a second state. In the first state, for example, the touch sensing system of the device can be programmed to recognize and process a wide range of touch signals including relatively weak touch signals, which may correspond to water, liquid or other unintentional touches. In the second state, for example, the touch detection threshold can be adjusted to better reject water or unintended touches. In some examples, a ratio of measurements captured using the different types of scans of a selected touch node can be used to determine the state of the device.

State-based touch threshold

The present disclosure generally relates to methods and devices for rejecting touches to an electronic device that are false positives for transitioning the device from a low-power state to a high-power state. The electronic device, includes a display and a touch-sensitive surface including an array of touch pixels, the array of touch pixels including one or more margin regions and one or more non-margin regions. While the display is in a low-power state, the electronic device detects, at the touch-sensitive surface, an input. In response to detecting the input and in accordance with at least a portion of the input being in the one or more margin regions and a determination that a first input-characteristic of the input meets at least one criterion of a first set of display-wake-rejection criteria, the electronic device forgoes transitioning the display from the low-power state to a high-power state.

Method for transitioning power states of an electronic device

A touch sensitive device that detects the occurrence of an electrostatic discharge event on the device by analyzing an acquired touch image for characteristics associated with the occurrence of an ESD event is provided. An acquired touch image is analyzed for characteristics that differentiate it from a touch image generated by a user input and are correlated with an expected touch image generated by an ESD event.

ESD detection on a touch input device

A low power can for device wake up and unlock is disclosed. The low power scan can include one or more algorithms used to detect a sequence and/or one or more gestures to wake up a processor and unlock the device for user interaction. A sequence and/or one or more gestures can be determined by a microcontroller and/or by a separate hardware component. The microcontroller can send a notification or a wake signal to the processor and/or switch the device from an idle to an active state. By detecting a sequence and one or more gestures in the microcontroller before powering on or waking up the processor, the amount of power consumed can be reduced and the battery life extended.

Low power scan for device wake up and unlock

A touch screen is disclosed. In some examples, the touch screen comprises a touch sensor panel including a plurality of touch pixels that include a first and a second touch pixel, a first sense connection coupled to the first touch pixel, and a second sense connection coupled to the second touch pixel. In some examples, a touch controller is configured to detect an object coupled to the first touch pixel and the second sense connection, and in response to detecting the object, output substantially no touch signal associated with the second touch pixel. In some examples, the touch controller is further configured to scale a first touch signal associated with the first touch pixel by a first correction coefficient corresponding to the first touch pixel and the second touch pixel, and subtract the scaled first touch signal from a second touch signal associated with the second touch pixel.

Coupling correction in capacitive touch panels

A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes: identifying a touch detected on a touch sensor panel; extracting touch information associated with the touch; calculating an overall confidence value based on the extracted touch information; comparing the confidence value with a predetermined threshold; and determining whether to identify the touch as a non-touch based on a result of the comparison.

Method of disambiguating water from a finger touch on a touch sensor panel

Gestures for converting from a position control mode to a motion continuation mode are disclosed. A position control mode can be invoked when the user simultaneously places two or more fingers upon a sensor panel. The fingers can then be moved around to effect position control. A motion continuation mode can be invoked when one or more fingers are lifted off (but at least one finger remains in contact with the sensor panel). If the motion continuation mode is invoked, a virtual control ring can be generated, and scrolling of the viewable area or dragging of the cursor or object can continue in a particular direction specified by a velocity vector pointed in the direction of finger movement at the time the motion continuation mode is invoked, and having a magnitude proportional to the velocity of the finger at the time the motion continuation mode was invoked.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Sean Erik O'Connor