The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 10, 2012
Filed:
May. 14, 2009
Peter Sleeman, Waterlooville, GB;
Martin John Simmons, Southampton, GB;
Daniel Pickett, Lee-on-the Solent, GB;
Christopher Ard, Eastleigh, GB;
Peter Sleeman, Waterlooville, GB;
Martin John Simmons, Southampton, GB;
Daniel Pickett, Lee-on-the Solent, GB;
Christopher Ard, Eastleigh, GB;
Atmel Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
In a touch sensor, as well as providing touch position data, additional data is provided on the shape of the touch. This is achieved by having sampling nodes on a finer mesh than the size of the actuating object, typically a finger, so each finger touch activates a group of adjacent nodes on the sensor. In this way, each touch has a shape formed by the activated nodes. The shape allows the touch sensor to report an angle with each touch and data indicating how elongate the touch is, preferably both together as a vector in which the direction of the vector gives the angle and the magnitude of the vector gives the ellipticity. For each frame of data collected from the sensor array, the sensor outputs an (x, y) coordinate of touch position and a further (x, y) coordinate of a shape vector. This allows many novel gestures to be provided, such as single finger 'drag and zoom' and single finger 'drag and rotate'. It also allows for correction of systematic human error in the placement of finger touches on virtual keys.