Touch-based control device to detect touch input without blind spots
AssigneeBrilliant Home Technology, Inc.
InventorsBrian Cardanha, Bozhi See, Michelle Pillainayagam
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A touch-based control device is operable to detect touch input over an entirety of the control device's exterior, including at regions of an exterior panel that (i) overlay portions of a circuit board where no touch sensors exist, and/or (ii) extend beyond a perimeter of a touch region or circuit board on which touch sensors are provided.
Claims23
A touch-based control device comprising:
- an interior housing;
- a circuit board;
- a sensor layer including a plurality of sensing elements that are positioned to modulate their respective sensing signals in response to touch input on an exterior panel that overlays the sensor layer;
- and
- a control module provided within the interior housing, the control module including control logic to determine whether modulating sensor signals generated by a set of sensing signals of the plurality of sensing elements vary from a corresponding baseline signal by more than a corresponding minimum threshold;
- wherein the control logic determines the corresponding minimum threshold for the modulating sensor signals based on a location of one or more sensing elements of the set of sensing elements, the one or more sensing elements being adjacent or proximate to a sensor void region of the circuit board and/or a perimeter region that extends beyond a perimeter edge of the circuit board;
- wherein the control module generates one or more output signals to control one or more connected devices based on the touch input.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a control module of a touch-based control device, cause the control module to:
- detect a touch input performed on an exterior panel of the touch-based control device, the exterior panel overlaying an interior housing of the touch-based control device, the interior region including a circuit board;
- wherein a minimum threshold of at last one modulating sensor signal is based on the respective sensing element being adjacent or proximate to a sensor void region of the circuit board and/or a perimeter region that extends beyond a perimeter edge of the circuit board;
- and
- based on the touch input, generate one or more output signals to control one or more connected devices.
A computer-implemented method of operating a touch-based control device, the method being performed by a control module of the touch-based control device and comprising:
- detecting a touch input performed on an exterior panel of the touch-based control device, the exterior panel overlaying an interior housing of the touch-based control device the interior region including a circuit board;
- wherein a minimum threshold of at last one modulating sensor signal is based on the respective sensing element being adjacent or proximate to a sensor void region of a circuit board and/or a perimeter region that extends beyond a perimeter edge of the circuit board;
- and
- based on the touch input, generating one or more output signals to control one or more connected devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.