Multi-touch input discrimination
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorWayne Carl WESTERMAN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques for identifying and discriminating between different types of contacts to a multi-touch touch-screen device are described. Illustrative contact types include fingertips, thumbs, palms and cheeks. By way of example, thumb contacts may be distinguished from fingertip contacts using a patch eccentricity parameter. In addition, by non-linearly deemphasizing pixels in a touch-surface image, a reliable means of distinguishing between large objects (e.g., palms) from smaller objects (e.g., fingertips, thumbs and a stylus) is described.
Claims14
A method to identify an input to a touch-surface device, comprising:
- obtaining a proximity image;
- segmenting the proximity image to identify one or more patches;
- generating a proximity sensor signal when an object is proximate the proximity sensor;
- and
- determining a signal density value for at least one of the one or more patches;
- and
- using the signal density value and the proximity sensor signal to determine the existance of an object adjacent to or in contact with the touch surface device.
A touch-surface device, comprising:
- a memory for storing a proximity image of a touch surface of the touch-surface device;
- a processor operative for:
- segmenting the proximity image to identify one or more patches;
- generating a proximity sensor signal when an object is proximate the proximity sensor;
- and
- determining a signal density value for at least one of the one or more patches;
- and
- using the signal density value and the proximity sensor signal for determining the existance of an object adjacent to or in contact with the touch surface device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.