Touch control surfaces for electronic user devices and related methods

A compute device comprising:

• a housing having an exterior surface;
• a microphone array including a first microphone, a second microphone, and a third microphone;
• memory;
• machine readable instructions;
• and
• processor circuitry to execute the machine readable instructions to:
• determine a first location of a first touch and a second location of a second touch by a user on the exterior surface based on (a) microphone signals output by the first microphone, the second microphone, and the third microphone and (b) a first distance between the first microphone and the second microphone, a second distance between the second microphone and the third microphone, and a third distance between the third microphone and the first microphone;
• perform a comparison of a time between the first touch and the second touch to a time threshold;
• correlate the first touch with a first gesture based on the first location when the time is greater than the time threshold;
• correlate the first touch and the second touch with a second gesture based on the first location and the second location when the time is less than the time threshold;
• and
• cause a response to the first gesture or the second gesture.

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause processor circuitry of a compute device to at least:

• detect a first touch by a user on a surface of the compute device at a first time based on signals output by a microphone of the compute device;
• detect a second touch by the user on the surface of the compute device at a second time based on the signals;
• determine a first location of the first touch based on the signals;
• perform a comparison of first time relative to the second time;
• determine an orientation of the surface of the compute device based on signals output by a device orientation sensor;
• correlate the first touch with a gesture based on the first location, the comparison of the first time relative to the second time, and the orientation of the surface;
• interpret the gesture as a user input;
• and
• cause a response to the user input.