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US 2017/0364181 A1Published application
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 discriminate input sources to a touch-surface device, comprising:
- receiving an image from an array of sensing elements, the image including at least one patch;
- determining an irregularity measure value for the at least one patch, the irregularity measure value indicating a degree of irregularity in a shape of the at least one patch;
- determining that the irregularity measure value exceeds a predetermined threshold;
- determining that a first input source is within a predetermined distance to a proximity sensor, the proximity sensor distinct from the array of sensing elements;
- and
- controlling an operation of the touch-surface device in accordance at least with determinations that the irregularity measure value exceeds the predetermined threshold and that the first input source is within the predetermined distance to the proximity sensor.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.