Detecting touch on a curved surface
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsDaniel Rosenfeld, Jonathan Westhues, Shahram Izadi, Nicolas Villar, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Kurt Allen Jenkins
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Abstract
Embodiments are disclosed herein that are related to input devices with curved multi-touch surfaces. One disclosed embodiment comprises a touch-sensitive input device having a curved geometric feature comprising a touch sensor, the touch sensor comprising an array of sensor elements integrated into the curved geometric feature and being configured to detect a location of a touch made on a surface of the curved geometric feature.
Claims20
A touch-sensitive input device for a computing device, comprising:
- a curved geometric feature comprising a touch sensor, the touch sensor comprising an array of sensor elements integrated into the curved geometric feature and being configured to detect a location of a touch made on a surface of the curved geometric feature.
A computer mouse, comprising:
- a body;
- a capacitive multi-touch sensor integrated with the body that extends across a curved portion of the body, the capacitive multi-touch sensor comprising a plurality of pixels each being configured to detect touch at a location on the body over the pixel, wherein the capacitive multi-touch sensor comprises an array of conductive polymer thick film sensor elements;
- and
- a controller configured to detect a location of a touch on the body by acquiring a plurality of capacitance measurements from the array of sensor elements.
In a multi-touch computer input device comprising a curved surface with a capacitive multi-touch sensor array integrated into the curved surface, and a pressure sensitive, variable resistance material in contact with the sensor array, a method of measuring a touch location and touch pressure on the curved surface, comprising:
- acquiring a first impedance measurement from the sensor array at a first frequency, the first impedance measurement comprising an impedance value for each pixel of the sensor array;
- acquiring a second impedance measurement from the sensor array at a second frequency, the second impedance measurement comprising an impedance value for each pixel of the sensor array, wherein the second frequency is different than the first frequency;
- from the first impedance measurement and the second impedance measurement, determining a resistance value and a capacitive reactance value;
- from the capacitive reactance value, determining a location of a touch on the curved surface;
- and
- from the resistance value, determining a touch pressure of the touch on the curved surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.